The Haddock Twins: Riders Of Berk
by Skylight369
Summary: The war between the Vikings and dragons is now over. Join Hiccup, Hicca, Toothless and Midnight as they discover new dragons, fight new enemies, and maintain the new found peace on Berk
1. How To Start A Dragon Academy

**A/N: I'm back! :) As promised, here is my Riders of Berk fanfiction. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own How to train your dragon or Dragons: Riders of Berk.**

**Chapter 1: How To Start A Dragon Academy**

**_This is Berk. For generations, it was Viking against dragon. The battles were ferocious... then one day, everything changed._**

Berk was village that was constantly raided by dragons. In this village, killing dragons was everything. Now everything has change. There was new found peace between the two. And it was all thanks to a boy, a girl and their dragons.

**_Hicca and I met Midnight and Toothless, and together we've shown people here that instead of fighting dragons we can ride them... live with them, even train them._**

On top of one of the sea stack were six riders Astrid, Raeda, Fishlegs, Snotlout, Ruffnut and Tuffnut along with their dragons Stormfly, Sparkfire, Meatlug, Hookfang, Barf and Belch. They were joined by two more riders and their dragons.

"Okay, guys. Best Trick Competition. Who's up first?" Hiccup said as he, Toothless, Hicca and Midnight landed.

"Uh..." Fishlegs started to say before he was interrupted by Snotlout.

"Me!" He said pointing to himself.

"Actually, I think it's-"

"Me!"

This annoyed Astrid greatly "Sweet baby Thor in a thunderstorm, GO!" She yelled.

Unfazed by this, Snotlout gave a smirk and started to brag "Oh, don't worry, we'll go. And when we go, Hookfang and I are gonna light the sky on-" Hookfang, who was getting impatient, took off without waiting for his rider to finish "-FIRE! Oh, no!" Snotlout yelled as Hookfang started performing daring stunts.

"I'm liking Hookfang more and more." Hicca said as she enjoyed the performance.

Hookfang and Snotlout then rejoined the others "I'm alive...? I'm alive!" Snotlout said with relief but as soon as he saw the others looking at him, he quickly regained his composure. "Of course I am."

"It's my turn! Ready, Meatlug? Here we go!" Fishlegs and Meatlugs' trick however was a bit _too_ simple. They just flew around in a circle before landing. Fishlegs, however, didn't seem bothered by this. "Yes, new personal best!" He said as Meatlug licked him happily.

"My turn!" Ruffnut said.

"No, _my_ turn!"

"You tell them this time, bro." Hicca said to Hiccup.

"Guys, same dragon." Hiccup said, before the Thorston twins could get in another argument.

"Oh, right." Tuffnut said. The Thorston twins then took off with their dragon, Barf and Belch, but a few seconds later they started another argument.

"Go left!"

"No, right!"

"N-no, right!"

"No, left!"

After narrowly missing a nearby sea stack, Barf and Belch decided to take control of the flying and threw their riders high into the air, much to the riders delight ", NO! WHOA! THIS IS AWESOME AND SCARY! AAAH!" Tuffnut shouted in mid-air.

Their dragon caught them and took them back to the others.

"We almost died!" Ruffnut said.

"Yeah, I know... go again?!" Tuffnut asked getting excited again.

"Nope. It's my turn guys. Let's go Sparkfire." Raeda said.

She and Sparkfire took off. As they flew towards one of the sea stacks, Raeda got out her bow and arrows and rapidly fired five arrows in a vertical line, all a few centimetres apart from each other, on the sea stack. Then Sparkfire flew upwards, in a circle so that they were once again flying towards the same sea stack.

"Alright Sparkfire, now! Spine shot!" She commanded. In response, the purple Deadly Nadder fired five spines that landed right on the spot where the arrows were, causing the arrows to split.

"Good girl." Feeling triumph, Raeda led Sparkfire back to the others. "Beat that." She said smugly to her fellow Nadder rider.

"Nice job Rae. Our turn Stormfly. You two might want to take notes." She said to the Haddock twins, who just smiled in response. Ever since Astrid apologised to both of them, they put the past behind them and started over again. And it was going well for all three of them.

"Okay, Stormfly, tail flip!" Astrid commanded. Stormfly complied, flipping her tail into the water. "Now twirl!" The blue Nadder then barrel rolls, shooting forward. "Quick, upwards spiral!" They finished their routine with a spin high into the air.

"Alright, Stormfly!" Astrid praised her dragon as they came back onto the sea stacks.

"Hmm, not bad." Raeda said nonchalantly, although she was secretly planning on practicing similar moves with her dragon.

"Yeah, but can you do it without the dragon?" Snotlout asked. Astrid responded with a punch to his shoulder. "Ow!"

Astrid then turned and gestured to the two remaining riders to go.

"Wow, we've got quite a competition, bro." Hicca said, referring to Raedas' and Astrids' performances.

"Yeah, it looks like we've got our work cut out for us there." Hiccup agreed.

The four of them then took off. Toothless and Midnight dived down towards the ocean. Just when it looked like they were going to hit the water, Hiccup and Hicca pulls up and they shoot forward with breakneck speed. They then come across two conjoined sea stacks. The Haddock twins shared a knowing look before getting ready. Hiccup unhooks his metal leg from the saddle and he and his sister and jumps on the bridge between the sea stacks while their dragons flew underneath. The twins then ran across the bridge and jumped back to their dragons on the other side. Toothless and Midnight wrapped up the performance by shooting plasma blasts into the sky, leaving the other teens amazed once again.

"They're still the best." Astrid admitted, happy for them.

"Hate to admit this Astrid, but you're right." Raeda said, still awestruck by the performance.

"Another win. Good job, guys." Hiccup said.

"Yep, we still got it." Hicca said happily.

The four of them happily flew back to the village.

**_Yep, dragons. Most people on Berk would say life here is better since we made peace with them. Unfortunately, dragons are still, well, dragons._**

When the Haddock twins and their dragons landed in the village, they saw chaos.

"Bad dragon! Let go of my food! Drop it, pesky dragon! Dragons!"

"Get off my roof, you pest!"

"Let go of that! These are my apples!"

"Give me back my dainties, dragon!"

Suddenly, the villagers stopped what they were doing and ran for cover.

"Incoming!"

"Look out!"

"Dragon poo!"

They ran as hundreds of dragons flew by, relieving themselves.

"Ew, gross, gross, gross, gross! Oh, poop! Oh, that's disgusting!" Hiccup said, trying to avoid being hit.

"And we just got this village cleaned." Hicca said, covering her nose and mouth.

They backed up, bumping into Bucket and Mulch who were using shields as umbrellas.

"Hey, Mulch. Hey, Bucket. Sorry about the, uh-" Hiccup tried to apologise.

"Every day at 3:00. They're regular at least. A tip of the cap." Bucket commented.

"Better than the days when it was "kill or be killed". Hey, we've got some fish for that father of yours. Bucket, give them the cod." Mulch said to his friend.

Bucket held out an empty sack which was torn at the bottom.

"I ate it already? Did I enjoy it?" Bucket asked confused.

Hiccup and Hicca exchanged a look and sighed. Hiccup then tried to explain to Bucket what happened to the fish "Um, no, uh, actually, Bucket, I-I'm afraid the, uh-" However, he didn't need to explain as a Terrible Terror walked by with a cod.

**_Most of us here on Berk are willing to take the good with the bad. But there are those who will never accept the dragons and will do anything to drive them away_**.

At night, in a house outside the village lived an old man named Mildew who was trying to sleep. Suddenly his roof started to shake, waking him up. He went outside to investigate and found a Gronckle sleeping on his roof.

"Dragons. I should've known." He muttered. He then holds up a half-eaten cabbage. "Helps himself to my roof and my cabbage." He grumbled. He was definitely going to complain to the chief.

He then turns around and, to his horror, saw that a bunch of Gronckles have devoured his entire cabbage field.

"My whole field! Gone! That tears it, Fungus." He then called to his sheep, Fungus, and grabbed his helmet, staff and sheep and started to walk towards the village with a scowl on his face.

The next day Stoick is giving orders to some of the villagers "Stand the elk up in the back. The fishing boats just came in with a big catch."

"Stoick!" A voice called out. Seeing, who it belong to made Gobber sigh.

"Ah, here's Mildew with the complaint of the day." He said, not looking forward to whatever Mildew has to say.

"You picked a bad time, Mildew. I'm in the middle of storing food. The freeze is coming." Stoick said, hoping to avoid talking with Mildew.

Mildew ignored that "It's the dragons again. Those demons are not fit to live among civilized men."

"Neither are you, Mildew. Why do you think we built your house so far outside of town?" Gobber responded.

This cause Mildew to scowl "Ah, very well, make your jokes. Meanwhile these dragons upend our village carts! Turn people's houses into piles of rubble!" This caught the nearby villagers' attention

"Mildew's right!" One of the Vikings said, agreeing with the old man.

"They even disturb an old man's rest! Can't you see these bags under me eyes?" Mildew said, pointing to his eyes

"Go on, Mildew!" A villager encouraged.

"He's right, he's hideous." Gobber commented.

"These are wild and unpredictable beasts!" Mildew shouted.

" Right you are!" Another villager shouted in agreement

"They even cracked this man's skull! Like an egg." Mildew said, gesturing to Bucket.

"Eggs? I like eggs! Scrambled! Over easy! Poached!" Bucket asked, oblivious to the situation.

"You need to put those dragons in cages!" Mildew declared.

"I agree!"

"If you don't, they'll eat us out of house and home and destroy the entire village!" he warned.

The villagers yelled in agreement. Seeing this, Hiccup and Hicca tried to intervene.

"They don't mean any harm. They're just dragons being dragons." Hiccup said.

"Yeah, they can't help it. They've been living like this for years." Hicca added.

"Look, Mildew, if there's a problem I'll deal with it." Stoick said, trying to diffuse the protest.

"Oh, there is a problem, Stoick. And I think I speak for everyone when I say you better do something about it."

Back at the Haddock household, Stoick is discussing the new problem with Gobber "We can't just let dragons run wild like they own the place. Hey, we could put up signs."

"Signs? For dragons?" Gobber asked, incredulously.

"No, for the people."

"Signs? For _Vikings_? We're not big readers, Stoick."

**"**Then we'll build a huge net and stretch it around the plaza."

**"**Nets? You do know they breathe fire?"

Stoick sighed "I know very well they breath fire, Gobber. Maybe Mildew was right. We have to figure something-"

Overhearing this, the Haddock twins decided to step-in.

"No, no, wait, Dad. What if _Hicca and I_ deal with the dragons?" Hiccup said.

_"__You two?" _Stoick asked, doubtful.

"Why do you act so surprise, dad?" Hicca asked.

"Who else? If anyone can control them, we can. I'm the best man and Hicca is the best woman for the job." Hiccup said confidently.

"You're not a man yet, Hiccup. And Hicca's not a woman yet."

"Not if you don't give us the chance to be!" Hiccup protested.

"Don't forget you're talking to the same kids who took out a dragon the size of a mountain when no one else could." Hicca reminded him.

Stoick considered that for a moment. "Fair enough, you'll have your chance... starting tomorrow." He decided.

The next day, Hicca and Hiccup immediately started their new job. They decided to split up to cover more ground.

**"**Okay, gang, there's gonna be some changes around here." Hiccup announced to the dragons.

He then sees a woman trying to get rid of a Deadly Nadder that's trying to take the basket of bread she's holding.

**"**Get out! Shoo! For the last time, get your nose out of my bread!"

'Alright time to get started.' Hiccup thought as he ran towards the woman and the dragon

"Hold on, I'll help you! Just... no!" He places his hand on the Nadder's nose, and the dragon instantly calms down.

**"**Alright." Hiccup said satisfied, So far so good

Suddenly, a loud crash is heard which startles the Nadder. Hiccup turns around to see a Gronckle chasing a group of chickens, knocking over carts in the process. As it runs by, the Deadly Nadder also joins the chase.

**"**Okay..." Hiccup said. This may take a while

Hiccup then sees another Deadly Nadder and a Monstrous Nightmare fighting near a sheep farm, setting some unfortunate sheeps on fire and causing them to scatter in terror.

**"**Toothless, stop that fight! I'll put out the sheep!" Hiccup told his dragon who obeyed. "Okay, okay... whoa!"

Hiccup chases the sheep into the plaza, right into the middle of even more chaos caused by the dragons, much to the other Vikings annoyance.

**"**Get out! Get back here with my cart!"

**"**Enough of these dragons!"

Unbeknownst to Hiccup and his sister, the rest of the dragon trainers were watching their progress from afar.

"What's he doing?" Snotlout asked

"Uh, I think he's helping the dragons break stuff." Tuffnut suggested.

"Cool!" Ruffnut said.

Hiccup tries to put out a flaming sheep, but the sheep refuses to stop and just hops right over him, knocking him over.

"Doesn't look like Hicca is having a better luck." Raeda commented as she observed Hicca struggling to keep a Monstrous Nightmare from flaming itself which was setting fire to some of the nearby villages while some Terrible Terrors flew around, taking cod.

"Wow, they could really use our help." Astrid said.

**"**We'll get to it." Tuffnut responded.

**"**In a minute." Ruffnut added.

Hiccup finally manages to catch one of the sheep and put out the fire.

**"**Sorry about that." Hiccup said.

Suddenly, hundreds of dragons began flying over the village. That only means one thing

**"**And... it's three o'clock." Astrid stated

Hiccup, unfortunately, didn't have time to duck for cover and his sister wasn't as lucky either.

**"**Oh, no..."

After the chaos was over and it was night, the Haddock twins were in Hiccups room resting on his bed. Both were completely exhausted from the days' work.

**"**Oh, everything hurts..." Hiccup groaned. He then lifts his prosthetic foot. "Even this." He didn't even know that was possible.

"You know, with the dragons raids now over, I thought we wouldn't need the fire brigade for a while. Yet, I have been to every part of the village today with a bucket filled with water." Hicca commented

**"**Hiccup? Hicca?" Astrid called out from outside the room.

Hiccup immediately got up from his bed **"**Astrid? Perfect. I don't look _too_ beat-up, do I?" He asked.

Midnight was napping in Hiccas' room, Hicca shrugged and Toothless gives him a pity smile.

"Oh, great. Dragon pity." Hiccup grumbled.

Astrid and Raeda then entered his room.

"Hey, Astrid. Hey, Raeda. What a nice surprise!" Hiccup said

**"**So, how was your day?" Astrid asked although she and Raeda already knew how it went.

Hiccup didn't know that "Uh, uneventful. Hung around the plaza... you know." He said, trying to sound casual.

"Yeah we do know. We saw you out there. It's hard to believe you're both still standing." Astrid said.

"And that neither of you are injured." Raeda added.

Hiccup sighs in defeat and flops down onto his bed.

**"**Ugh...! I'm gonna be seeing flaming sheep in my dreams for the next month." He said.

"You're not the only one bro. I saw a few flaming sheeps run by today." Hicca said.

"Poor sheeps." Raeda commented.

**"**Hiccup! Hicca!" Stoick called out as he entered his sons' room. "Hiccup, Hicca, what's going on out there? The plaza looks like a war zone."

**"**I know it looks bad..." Hiccup started to explain.

"Really bad." Astrid whispered.

"Really, really bad." Raeda added in a whisper.

**"**Yeah, but this is only Phase One of our master plan." Hiccup said, trying to sound convincing.

**"**Oh, so you two do have a plan?" Stoick asked, a little doubtful.

"Really dad? I feel insulted that you don't think we have a plan." Hicca said, playing along

"We do... of course we do! It's very complex. Lots of drawings, several moving parts. Yeah, it's, uh, pretty wild." Hiccup said, hoping the chief would buy it.

"Uh-huh. Well, this better be real. Because Mildew's stirred up the whole island. And if you don't get those dragons under control, they'll be calling for their heads." Stoick warned before he left.

Hearing that comment made Toothless worried. Was his head going to be chopped off?

Hiccup noticed his dragon becoming uncomfortable and patted his head **"**Don't worry, bud. Your head's not going anywhere."

"Not if we have anything to say about it." Hicca said with determination.

**"**You two do realize there are, like, _a bazillion_ dragons out there and only _two_ of you? I hope you really _do_ have a plan."

"Me too." Raeda said.

The next morning, Hiccup, Hicca and the other Dragon Riders gathered with their dragons in the old arena.

"_That's_ your plan? Train dragons?" Ruffnut asked as soon as the Haddock twins explained their plan

**"**_Here?_ Where we used to kill them?" Tuffnut asked in disbelief.

**"**Right... because we don't do that anymore. That's why it's available." Hiccup explained.

"Yeah, it would be a shame to see this place go to waste." Hicca added.

**"**Actually, the dragons do seem a _little_ nervous." Astrid noted, seeing every dragon, except for Toothless and Midnight, looked around the Arena uncomfortably.

"That's because they're very sensitive. Meatlug especially. She lost a cousin here. We try not to talk about it." Fishlegs explained while comforting his dragon.

"I guess it's expected after being trapped here for so long only being released for fighting." Raeda stated.

**"**It's amazing your dad just gave us the arena." Astrid commented.

**"**Well, it would be, if he did, yeah, but, he didn't, so that's another thing we should try not to talk about." Hiccup said nervously.

"Especially not in front of dad." Hicca added.

"Wait, so we're going behind your father's back?" Astrid asked

"There you go, talking about it!" Hiccup said, trying to avoid answering that. "Uh... alright. Everybody, here's the thing. The dragons are out of control. We want them to live in our world without destroying it but they can't without our help. They've been blowing things up in the village... we've gotta do something about that. "

The Thorston twins, however, misinterpreted that "Got it! Help dragons blow things up! We can totally do that." Tuffnut said, getting excited.

"No. I believe I said-"

"Here's how we're gonna do it: First, we make them really, really angry." Ruffnut said.

**"**No problem. We anger everybody." Tuffnut said.

"No, you guys, this is serious! Mildew wants all of our dragons caged. And I don't know about you, but that's _not_ okay with me." Hiccup said firmly.

"Neither is it okay with me." Hicca said with the same firmness.

**"**You're right. She's sorry." Tuffnut said, pointing to his sister. Ruffnut glares at her brother.

Hiccup decided to continue "Okay, then. Next problem: The dragons are eating everything in sight. Now, when a dragon grabs something it's not supposed to have, you can get him to drop it by giving him a little scratch just below the chin."

"Be gentle with the scratch, otherwise you won't get the desired effect." Hicca added.

To demonstrate this point he and his sister holds up a loaf of bread each, which Toothless and Midnight takes from their riders. The Haddock twins then get Toothless and Midnight to drop the breads by scratching their chins, which both dragons enjoy.

Snotlout was not impressed by that "Ehneneneneuh! Maybe that works for both of you and Toothless and Midnight, but Hookfang and me? We do things a little different.

He then takes the two breads from Hiccup and Hicca, and tosses it to Hookfang, who caught them in his mouth.

"When I want this big boy to do something I just get right in his face and- DROP THAT RIGHT NOW! YOU HEAR ME?" Snotlout yelled at his dragon.

And sure enough, Hookfang drops the two breads to the ground, only to take Snotlout in his mouth instead.

**"**See? He dropped it." Snotlout said in a muffled voice from Hookfangs' mouth.

"Yep, he sure did." Raeda said amused.

"Heh heh. Should we help him?" Tuffnut asked.

"Yeah, in a minute." Astrid answered, using Ruffnuts' answer from before

"Alright. We've got a lot of training to do, but together, we can keep these dragons under control." Hiccup announced. Everyone agreed and went to work, leaving someone behind.

**"**Uh... can somebody do that chin-scratchy thing? Hello? You guys still there?" Snotlout asked still in Hookfangs' mouth, not knowing that everyone already left.

Later on, the eight teens walked around the village and to their surprise, everything was quiet.

"Huh. No dragons." Fishlegs noted, looking around.

"That was easy." Ruffnut said.

"Lunch?" Snotlout asked, not minding that the dragons weren't around.

"I have a bad feeling about this." Hicca muttered

"That's weird. If the dragons aren't here, where are they?"

It looked like he was going to get the answer to his question by the sound of an explosion, along with scattered screams. Suddenly, a mushroom cloud appears near the food storage house.

"Oh no." Raeda said.

**"**Something tells me that way." Astrid said. The teens then ran to the food storage, hoping it wasn't what they thought it was.

"Ow! Stop it! Give me that- that's mine!"

The teens arrived at the food storage, where they saw the building now turned to ashes by the dragons who were taking all the fishes. They also saw their own dragons joining their own feast.

"Stormfly?"

"Hookfang?"

"Sparkfire?"

"They've eaten everything! We've got nothing left for the freeze!" Stoick exclaimed.

Mildew took this opportunity to approach the chief "I warned you Stoick. But did you listen to me? No. You put a bunch of _teenagers_ in charge! Now look what the dragons have done! Caging is too good for those beasts."

Hiccup tried to defend the dragons "Dad, I swear Hicca and I can fix this. We- we were just starting to-"

"Enough Hiccup! How can I trust you and Hicca to control all the dragons, when neither of you can control your own?"

"What are you talking about dad?" Hicca asked. To answer that, Stoick gestures to Toothless and Midnight who had their heads in baskets looking for fish.

"Oh, Toothless..." Hiccup sighed.

"Not helping Midnight." Hicca grumbled. The Night Furies looked up, warbled some apologises and then went back to looking for fishes.

**"**Bucket! Mulch! Man the boats! We need another catch!" Stoick ordered.

"It's too late, Stoick. It took us six months to catch all that fish." Mulch said, sighing.

"Don't tell me it's too late! We've got to try!" Stoick said sternly.

Seeing the stern look on the chiefs' face, Mulch quickly backpedals "Of course we do! Uh, don't tell the Chief it's too late." He then turns to Bucket. "You're always so negative!" He scolded his friend, trying to get the blame off himself.

Poor Bucket believed him "I don't know what it is with me." He sighed.

**"**Dad, please! You gotta listen to me. Hicca and I know dragons better than-" Hiccup tried to say.

Stoick interrupted him "Not now, Hiccup. I have a village to feed. The dragons have done enough damage. By tonight, I want every one of them caged. Understand?"

Mildew, however, was not content about this arrangement "Bah! You can't just cage these dragons! You need to send them away _now_!" Unfortunately for the teens, the villagers started to agree Mildew.

"Stoick, Mildew's right!"

"Get 'em out of here!"

Stoick sighed "You're right, Mildew. We'll cage them tonight, and in the morning, Hiccup and Hicca will send them off the island. I'm sorry. He said, looking at the shock and sorrow on the teens face.

"Dad." Hicca whispered, not believing what she just heard.

At night, the teens gathered in the Great Hall with sad looks on their faces, all were upset on having to say goodbye to their dragon friends.

"I can't believe we have to send them away!" Snotlout complained

**"**It's gonna be weird. I got used to seeing Stormflys' face being the first thing I see every morning." Astrid said

"I know. I really don't want to go back to life without dragons. Especially life without Sparkfire." Raeda said sadly.

"Every night before I went to sleep, Meatlug would lick my feet." Fishlegs said, depressed "Who's gonna do that now?!"

"I volunteer Tuffnut!" Ruffnut said, trying to lighten the mood. She was unsuccessful, though. Not even Tuffnut seemed to care.

"Whatever. What time should I be there?" Tuffnut said monotonously.

"Come on, guys. Let's get this over with." Astrid said, getting up.

"This is the worst day of my life! We're never gonna see our dragons again!" Fishlegs complained.

Raeda, Snotlout, Fishlegs, Ruffnut and Tuffnut got up and joined Astrid to go lock up their dragons, leaving Hicca and Hiccup behind.

"I can't believe by tomorrow we're not going to see Midnight and Toothless again." Hicca said sadly.

"We can't let that happen! Toothless and Midnight are the best dragon friends we've ever had." Hiccup said,

Mildew overheard the Haddock twins and went over to them "Oh, Toothless, Oh Midnight, I'm gonna miss you so much..." He said, mocking the twins causing them to glare at him "You two know what your mistake was? Thinking dragons could be trained. But a dragon's gonna do what a dragon's gonna do. It's their nature. And nature always wins." Mildew said before he left.

Angry at him, Midnight and Toothless got ready to attack him, but before they could, the Great Hall doors swung open, letting in a cold chill that makes the fireplace go out. On instinct, Toothless and Midnight shot plasma blasts, relighting the fireplace.

"Oh! Thank you, Toothless and Midnight." A Viking woman said.

"See? It's actually helpful for us to have dragons around." Hicca pointed out.

Suddenly, she and her brother got the same idea.

"You know what? Mildew is absolutely right!"

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but I agree completely!" Hicca said.

"Come on, bud!"

"Let's go girl!"

In the Arena, the rest of the teens say goodbye to their dragons.

"I'm going to miss you so much, Sparkfire." Raeda said to her dragon, who crooned sadly in return.

"Goodbye, Hookfang." Snotlout said to his dragon

"I'm sorry, Stormfly. Now go." Astrid said sadly. She points her torch to the arena gates, to which Stormfly and the other dragons reluctantly walk through, not wanting to leave their riders.

"Ugh. Feels like big, sharp teeth are tearing at this _thing_ in my chest." Snotlout complained.

"That's what it feels like when your heart is breaking." Astrid explained.

"I don't have a heart! I'm not a girl!" Snotlout retorted.

Just when the gates were about to close, two familiar voices called out.

"Don't close it!"

"It's not over!"

The Haddock twins land with their dragons near the gate and Hiccup pulls the lever, opening the gate.

"We are not locking them up." Hiccup declared.

"What happened? Did you two change your father's mind? Or are we going behind his back again...?" Astrid asked.

"Uh...one of those." Hiccup answered nervously.

"If this is another act of rebel, I'm in." Raeda said excitedly.

"Look. The dragons are gonna do what they're gonna do. It's their nature. We just need to learn how to use it!" Hiccup explained.

"If we prove to the village how useful this can be, the dragons won't have to be banished." Hicca added.

The six teens listened in on Hiccup and Hiccas plan.

The next day, Bucket and Mulch tried to catch some fish for the food storage.

"Ah, the nets are empty again." Mulch sighed, looking at the nets.

"Did I eat them already? Did I enjoy it? Oop- am I being too negative?" Bucket asked, confused.

Seeing the fishermen in distress, Hiccup and Snotlout flew over to their boat.

"Snotlout, scare us up some dinner!" Hiccup ordered.

"Dragon attack!" Bucket yelled, alarmed.

Hookfang and Snotlout dive into the ocean, scaring the fish and herding them right into the fishing nets.

"WHOO-HOO!" Snotlout yelled.

"Hey! Thanks, dragon!" Mulch said, grateful that he and Bucket won't have to spend hours out there anymore.

"THAT'S RIGHT! THAT JUST HAPPENED!" Snotlout shouted in triumph.

Meanwhile Hicca, Astrid, Raeda and Fishlegs flew toward Mildew's field, where the old man is trying to plant more cabbage.

"Come on, guys! Follow me!" Hicca ordered to her fellow riders.

"Huh?" Mildew said, looking up in confusion. What were those kids up to now?

"Afternoon, Mildew!" Astrid shouted

"Garden service!" Raeda yelled.

Astrid and Raeda use Stormflys' and Sparkfires' tails to dig into the soil, ploughing the field. Hicca then flies down to dump cabbage seeds in the dug up dirt.

"Three o'clock! Time for the fertilizer!" Hicca announced.

That got Mildew even more confused "Fertili-?" He soon got the answer to his question as many dragons began flying over his field with Fishlegs and Meatlug joining them.

"Okay, Meatlug, let 'er rip!"

Meatlug and the rest of the dragons begin dropping dung onto the field, providing a good fertilizer to help grow Mildew's cabbage.

"Smile, Mildew! We just saved you three months of work!" Hicca said cheerfully.

"And it's for free! You're welcome!" Raeda added as they flew off.

In the forest, Ruffnut and Tuffnut are using Barf and Belch's explosions to scare a group of wild boars. Once they run out of the forest, Hiccup and Hicca herds them all into the village's slaughterhouse.

"That's the way to do it!" Hiccup exclaimed.

"Alright." Hicca cheered.

"Whoo-hoo! That was awesome!" Fishlegs said.

"How did you know that was gonna work?" Astrid asked the Haddock twins

"Because they're dragons, and they're gonna do what dragons do. We just have to work _with_ them and not _against_ them." Hiccup explained "You know who we should actually be thanking-?"

"There they are, Stoick! Those dragons don't look like they're in cages to me." Mildew said angrily, leading the chief to the teens.

"No. This is not what I asked for." Stoick said sternly.

"He's definitely not getting a thank you." Hicca said, referring to Mildew.

"Even after the free garden service, he's still against us." Raeda muttered, glaring at Mildew.

The teens are now all gathered in the arena, preparing for their punishment for disobeying the chiefs' orders.

"Oh, no! What's Stoick gonna do to us?" Fishlegs asked, worriedly.

"I'm too pretty for jail!" Ruffnut groaned.

"Ha, where'd you hear _that_?" Tuffnut joked.

"You all disobeyed my orders... and there will be consequences." Stoick said.

"I told you two we were gonna get in trouble. Ugh, you guys never listen to me!" Astrid complained to the Haddock twins.

Hiccup and Hicca then step forward.

"Dad, if anyone's going to get in trouble, it should be me." Hiccup said, ready to take responsibility.

"And me. This was my plan just as much as it was Hiccups'." Hicca said, not wanting her brother to be the only one to take the fall.

"Nope. You all had a hand in this." Stoick declared.

"Oh this is going to be great, Fungus. It's about to get ugly." Mildew said excitedly to his sheep, while watching from the stands.

Stoick continued "You took over this place without asking. You released the dragons against my wishes. Things are going to change around here. That's why I-"

Gobber then interrupted the chief with a surprise "You're getting a Dragon Training Academy!" He announced with excitement. The teens eyes widened in surprise.

"Wha-?" Mildew asked, equally surprised as the teens.

"Gobber! I wanted to tell them!" Stoick said, annoyed at his friend

"I'm sorry. You're right. Go ahead." Gobber apologised, allowing Stoick to continue.

"Well, you told most of it!" Stoick complained.

"You can tell him the part about how proud you are of them!" Gobber suggested.

"GOBBER!"

Stoick then turned to his children "Hiccup, Hicca- well, what he said. You've all made me proud. This Dragon Training Academy is for you." He declared. He then opens the cages inside the new Academy, releasing all the teens' dragons, to their delight.

"Hookfang! My buddy!"

"Sparkfire! I'm so glad you guys aren't leaving!"

"Hey, Stormfly! I missed you so much!"

"Meatlug! Oh, who's Daddy's little baby? Oh, who's Daddy's little..." Fishlegs cooed to his dragon

"Hey girl!" Hicca said excitedly to her dragon.

"Hey, bud!" Hiccup said as his dragon ran over to him.

One person, however, wasn't happy about this turn of event at all "Oh, I'll get those dragons yet." Mildew grumbled, as he and his sheep walked away.

"Now all you have to do is train 'em." Stoick said.

"We've got it covered." Hicca said to her dad.

"Not a problem, Dad. After all, Hicca and I have got them." Hiccup said, gesturing to Toothless and Midnight.

"Ah-hem?" Astrid said.

"And...?" Raeda asked.

"And... them, too." Hiccup added, referring to the other dragon riders and their dragons.

That night, the teens all enjoyed the company of their dragons. Hiccup was drawing the dragon riders with their dragons while Hicca was bringing Toothless and Midnight their dinner. Raeda was making a tapestry of herself riding on Sparkfire and smiling when she saw her dragon squawking at the work in appreciation. Fishlegs was sleeping with Meatlug licking his feet. In the morning Astrid wakes up to see Stormfly flying through her window, both were ready to start the day.

**_Dragons can't change who they are. But who would want them to? Dragons are powerful, amazing creatures. _**

At the Arena, Hookfang and Meatlug hung the new sign, made by Raeda, for the new academy; the Berk Dragon Academy.

"_Berk Dragon Academy_. I like the sound of that." Astrid said looking at the sign.

"Nice touch, Rae." Hicca said to the Henderson girl.

"Thanks." Raeda said smiling.

**_And as long as it takes me and Hicca, we are going to learn everything there is to know about them. Wouldn't you? _**


	2. Viking For Hire

**Disclaimer: I do not own How to train your dragon**

**Chapter 2: Viking For Hire.**

**_Everybody needs a place in the world. Some people are born to theirs. _**

Flashback to a ship with Viking warrior, lead by chief Stoick the Vast.

"Raise the main sail! Turn her toward starboard!" Stoick ordered.

"Aye, sir!"

**_Some people discover theirs. _**

Another, more familiar, flashback is shown with Hiccup and Hicca touching Toothless and Midnight for the first time, creating the new bonds.

**_And some people make a place for themselves. _**

A third flashback shows the time when it was Vikings against dragons. The dragons are raiding the village again and Gobber is at the forge, making weapons for the warriors.

"Grab a weapon! No time to be choosy!" The blacksmith shouted, pushing the weapon cart.

Gobber then grabs his own prosthetic weapon and charges into the battlefield.

**_But then the world around them changes, and the place they made is gone. _**

Back to the current day, where there is now peace between Vikings and dragons, Gobber is finishing another sword in the forge. Once he finished, he held it up admiring his work. But then he looked around and saw the Vikings and dragons interacting peacefully. With a sigh, he tossed the sword in the cart with the other weapons, realizing that no one needs weapons anymore.

Meanwhile in the new Berk Dragon Academy, Hiccup and Hicca are quizzing the rest of the teens on dragons. The six teens are split into two teams: Astrid, Raeda and Fishlegs on one team, and Snotlout, Ruffnut and Tuffnut on the other.

"Every dragon has its own unique abilities that give it its special place in the world. Which dragon makes the best welding torch?" Hiccup asked to Team Astrid

**"**Oh! Deadly Nadder!" Astrid and Raeda said excitedly at the same time

"Its magnesium flame burns with the heat of the sun!" Fishlegs added with equal enthusiasm.

"Correct! Point to Team Astrid. Score is now 100 to 10." Hiccup announced while his sister added the score to the scoreboard.

"And you started with 10." Astrid said to the Team Snotlout.

"Oh, yeah? Well, the game's not over." Tuffnut retorted but then he got confused "Wait, what team am I on?"

"Next question. This one should be easy for you guys. What is the shot limit of a Hideous Zippleback? Team Snotlout." Hicca said, reading her journal.

"Easy? For them? I don't think so." Raeda said.

"I don't think they can count that high." Astrid added causing Fishlegs to giggle.

Ruffnut smirked as an idea came to her "Oh, really? Let's find out! Barf! Belch!" The Thorston twins' Zippleback raised their heads at one of their riders' command and shot six consecutive fireballs at Team Astrid, who managed to duck behind the barrels in time.

"Looks like it's about three." Tuffnut said, holding two fingers up. He was oblivious to the fact that he just supported Astrids' statement.

"Told you we could count that high!" Ruffnut said, also oblivious.

"Yeah...not quite." Hicca said

"It's six." Hiccup corrected "You were half-right. Five points." He then added those points to the scoreboard.

"Yes! We're up to 30!" Ruffnut cheered, hi-fiving her brother and Snotlout.

Before either Hiccup or Hicca could ask the next question, Astrid jumped over the barrel, not happy with being shot by fire "Alright, it's our turn. What happens when you shoot fire at one of the owners of a Deadly Nadder? She then whistled for Stormfly, who shoots her tail spikes at Team Snotlout, pinning them to the wall.

"No fair! She didn't give us time to answer!" Tuffnut complained, hanging from the wall.

Snotlout managed to free himself from the wall and walked towards Hookfang. "I've got a question. What happens when I set Hookfang on you?"

"Chaos." Hicca answered worriedly.

Hiccup tried to avert the oncoming fight "Okay, guys, that's enough training. So... we did some really good work here today."

Snotlout ignores Hiccup and prepares to fight "Prepare to face the Monstrous Nightmare! Snotlout pats Hookfangs' jaw, causing the dragon to suddenly rear up and set himself on fire, burning Snotlouts' butt, causing the boy to panic. "AH! THAT'S THE THIRD TIME THIS WEEK!" Snotlout shouted. He then jumps into a nearby water tub, extinguishing the fire "Aahhh... sweet relief." He sighed.

This made Hiccup confused "Hookfang never flames up when you're riding him. Is he okay?" He asked.

"He seems fine now." Hicca noted.

"Maybe he just realized who his owner is." Astrid said sarcastically.

"There's room in here for two." Snotlout said, flirting with Astrid. Astrid grabs his helmet and shoves him underwater in retaliation.

Later on in the plaza, Gobber tries rallies a crowd, with Hiccup and Hicca in it, and tries to get them interested in buying his weapons.

"Gather around! Come on, one and all! You may think these dragon-killing weapons have no more use, but think again! This long sword is now a lovely butter knife!" Gobber demonstrates this by using the sword to spread butter in on bread. However, the sword only succeeded in turning the bread into crumbs "Eh. It's also good for making breadcrumbs." Gobber said nervously, trying to cover it up. The plate then breaks. "Moving on."

Mildew, who was also in the crowd, comes up to the Haddock twins. "Well, this is a dark day. A great dragon slayer peddling his weapons as kitchen utensils? Hm. Tsk-tsk-tsk-tsk." He said in mock-pity, causing the twins to glare at him.

Gobber then holds up a mace "Up next, how about this..." Gobber hesitated as he tried to find a purpose for the mace. He saw a fly on the table and got an idea "...handy flyswatter?" To demonstrate, Gobber brought the mace down and smashes the table, causing the crowd to gasp. No way where they going to use a mace for _that_ "He-he. Also good for getting rid of unwanted tables." Gobber said. The fly he was trying to get then emerges from the wrecked table, completely unharmed. Gobber decides to move on and walks over to a large catapult. "Now, for the lady of the house! When the hubby's off pillaging, how are you to protect yourself from home invaders? No problem when you have Big Bertha!" Suddenly, the catapult flings open, hurling a stone into Silent Sven's house_. _That was the last straw for the crowd, as they disperse while murmuring_. _Gobber franticly tries to get their attention again. "Hey, wait! There's more! Come back! You haven't seen everything yet! I haven't cleared out my dungeon yet!" After seeing that everyone left uninterested, the blacksmith sighed, giving up "It's okay Bertha. We'll find a place for you." He said, patting the catapult

Mildew decides to use this to guilt the Haddock twins "Ah, it's hard to watch. Especially for you two, eh, Hicca and Hiccup? The feelings of guilt must be tearing at your insides. I mean, both of you put him out of business with your little peace pact with the dragons. You two _ruined_ his life. Bravo." He said mockingly, walking off. The twins continued to glare at him, but they can't help feeling that he may be right.

Later that evening, Hiccup is in his bedroom with Hicca, Toothless and Midnight and he and sister discussed Gobbers' dilemma.

Hiccup sighed "You know this wouldn't have come if Gobber hadn't taught me how?" He said, gesturing to his prosthetic leg "He taught us everything we needed to know to make Toothless' tail, sis. We gotta find some way to help him."

"I agree, but how?" Hicca asked.

Their discussion was interrupted when their dad entered the house, very exhausted. He set his helmet down and took a seat. Hiccup and Hicca comes downstairs to greet him.

"Tough day of chiefing, Dad?" Hiccup asked.

Stoick sighed "I was _all over_ the island. I married the Svensson girl to the Odegaard boy at dawn. Then down to the fields where some kids were tipping over yaks. Then back up to the newlyweds to settle a domestic dispute. I guess that honeymoon's over." Stoick said as Hicca brought him a mug of ale, while Hiccup put more logs in the fire

"Something to look forward to when your time comes, huh bro?" Hicca whispered to her brother.

"Ugh! Don't remind me." Hiccup whispered back.

"Sometimes I wish there were two of me."

This gave Hiccup an idea "Dad, th-there _are_ two of you!"

Hicca thought about her brothers' statement and caught on to his idea "He's right!"

Stoick, however, got the wrong idea "Is that another crack about my weight?!" He demanded.

"No, I mean Gobber. _He_ can be the other you." Hiccup explained.

"Yeah, he can take half of your work." Hicca added.

"Gobber? Well, he's way too busy making all those dragon-killing..." He started to say, but he realized what he was going to say when he saw the look on his kids faces "Well, used to be, until you-" Realizing that what he was going to say next wasn't any better, Stoick skipped to the point "Which is great! Except for Gobber."

"Exactly my point!" Hiccup stated.

Stoick considers this before saying "You know, that's actually not such a bad idea. I _could_ use a right hand."

"Which works out great, 'cause that's kind of the only one he has." Hiccup joked.

The next day, Stoick asked Gobber to be his right hand man. Gobber immediately accepted and the two men went to the plaza and discussed the plan for the day.

"I greatly appreciate you helping me out, Gobber." Stoick said to his friend.

"I'm just glad I could find time in my busy schedule, Stoick." Gobber lied.

Knowing his friend doesn't actually have a busy schedule, Stoick ignored that. He then takes out a small sheet of paper with all the tasks needed to be done and splits in half; one for him and one for Gobber. "I've got a full day ahead of me. Here's your half." He said, handing one half of the paper to Gobber.

"Oh, this'll be interesting." Gobber said, looking at his half of the paper.

"Now remember, some of these situations are _delicate_. They require _diplomacy_." Stoick informed him.

"Ah, no problem! I'm great at...that." Gobber said optimistically.

That caught Stoick by surprise "Really? You? You can speak to people with tact and sensitivity?"

It seemed that Gobber thought diplomacy meant something else "Oh, I thought it meant clubbing people on the head and asking questions later. But I can give your thing a shot."

Stoick watched his friend walk away and sighed. He hoped he made the right choice.

In the Great Hall, Gobber is leading a naming ceremony for a new-born baby. "Whosoever brings this child forth into the Hooligan tribe, let he be known!" The parents step forward, bringing their new-born baby. Gobber cradled the baby in his real hand. "As a representative of the chief, I welcome this baby into the Hooligan tribe. And pronounce the name to be..." Gobber paused as the father whispered the babys' name "Eeh. Hildegard? Doesn't seem like a Hildegard to me. Let's go with Magnus."

"But she's a girl, Gobber!" The mother said, offended.

"Don't worry, she's not gonna look like one. Magnus it is!" Gobber said in reassurance. It didn't really make things better for the parents "And please accept this teething toy on behalf of Stoick the Vast." He said, holding up a mace.

"No!" The mother yelled, horrified, taking her baby and holding her close.

Later, Gobber is at Mulch and Bucket's house, trying to settle a dispute between the two.

"Bucket says you never paid him for the sheep." Gobber said to Mulch.

"I never bought a sheep!" Mulch said defensively. But his lie was caught as a baa is heard and a sheep is seen behind Mulch.

"Who's that? A little woman?" Gobber asked sarcastically.

"Oh, Mulch. You're cheating me now?" Bucket said, hurt by this.

"Clearly there's only one way to settle this." Gobber declared. He then handed a hammer to Bucket and a mace to Mulch. Gobber walks out, leaving the two farmers/fishermen to fight it out. There's an awkward moment of silence before the two raise their weapons. Outside, Gobber smiles and crosses an item off his list. "Diplomacy? Check. Alright, what's next?"

He then went on to his next task, which was to repair some of the boat. Gobber, however, had a different idea on repairing the boat. He used metal slabs on the boat instead.

"I know the conventional thinking when repairing a ship is wood. But if you ask me, there's nothing like a good, old slab of iron! Ha! Nothing's getting through this!" Gobber said to a nearby Viking.

Stoick, along with Hildegard/Magnus's parents, Mulch, and Bucket, approaches Gobber. It was clear that the chief had a talk with all four people.

"Gobber! What do you think you're doing?" Stoick asked in frustration.

"Just checking another item off the list." Gobber said smiling, oblivious to the problems he had created. He then takes out his list and checks off the recent task. He taps the ship once with his hammer-hand. The ship suddenly slips off the dock and into the water, where the weight of the iron only makes it sink. "And adding an item for later. 'Recover sunken ship.'" He said adding it to the list. "Same time tomorrow?" Gobber asked the chief nonchalantly. Stoick sighs in exasperation.

That evening, Stoick is placing two blocks of ice on his head, trying to ease the headache caused by the added amount of work, thanks to Gobber. Hiccup hands him a mug of ale.

"Here you go, Dad." Hiccup said. He looks at the ice-block "Wow. A two-block headache. You know, Dad, I think you're being a wee bit rough on Gobber. It was his first day. Tomorrow will be way better."

"Oh, it will be for me. Because it _won't_ involve Gobber." Stoick declared.

"What do you mean?" Hiccup asked confused.

"It was just his first day, dad. He just needs time to learn how to handle things properly." Hicca said, trying to defend her mentor.

Stoick removed his ice-block "I tried to fit a square peg in a round hole, and it sunk a ship and named a baby girl Magnus! Now I'm not saying she didn't look like a Magnus, but try telling that to her parents."

"I can't believe you let him go! Well, we've got to help him!" Hiccup said.

"_We_ don't have to do anything. _You and Hicca_, on the other hand, are going to be very busy finding a job for Gobber." Stoick said, to his childrens' surprise and dismay.

The next day, the teens and their dragons are gathered at the Academy as Hicca and Hiccup tells them their newly made plan.

"You're bringing Gobber here?" Fishlegs asked cautiously.

"He's gonna be great. Nobody knows dragons like old Gobber. He's spent a lifetime, you know... _studying_ them. If we can tap into that, we'll all be better Dragon Trainers." Hiccup said trying to sound optimistic.

"Yeah, he would know a lot more about dragons' strengths and weaknesses than Hiccup and I would. That can be helpful." Hicca said with equal optimism.

"Something tells me this isn't going to end well." Raeda said.

Suddenly, the door burst open and in comes Gobber, lugging a whole cart-full of weapons. The dragons are clearly intimidated at the sight of the weapons. What was he going to with them?

"I'm back! Did ya miss me?" Gobber said cheerfully.

"There it is." Raeda said, sighing as her prediction seems more and more likely.

Hiccup walked up to his mentor, weary about the fact that he brought weapons "First of all, welcome. And second... tiny question, why did you bring your, you know...?"

"Killing things? I thought maybe we could train them by threatening to kill them." Gobber explained taking out an unusual-looking sword mixed with an axe and a mace "That's how my daddy taught me to swim." He slams the weapon into the ground, breaking the ground. "School's in session!"

That did it for the dragons as all of them, except for Toothless and Midnight, flew out of the Arena, deciding to skip todays' lesson. Raeda, Astrid, Snotlout, Fishlegs, Ruffnut and Tuffnut ran after their dragons.

"Eh. I didn't like school either." Gobber said shrugging, oblivious to the reason why the dragons left.

Hiccup and Hicca waited at the Academy, hoping that the other riders would come back. They were about to go look for them when Astrid, Raeda, Ruffnut and Tuffnut came back with their dragons.

"What's wrong with you guys?" Hiccup asked, noticing the four teens' discomforts when they got off their dragons.

"Ugh. We've been riding our dragons for four hours." Astrid groaned, glaring at Stormfly. "It took _forever_ to chase them down after Gobber scared them away."

"Some of us took more time than others finding them." Raeda said, glaring at Sparkfire.

Hiccup sighed "Yeah, I'm sorry about that. We just don't know what to do with him."

"We need find him something for him that's more in his forte." Hicca said.

They then see Ruffnut kicking Tuffnuts' butt "Do you guys always have to fight?"

"Hiccup and I don't even fight _half_ as much as you two do." Hicca stated.

"It's okay. I asked her to do that. I was just trying to get the feeling back." Tuffnut informed them.

After Ruffnut finished kicking him, she bends down "You gonna return the favour or what?"

"Hicca and I have flown for hours on Toothless and Midnight and neither of us ever had a problem." Hiccup said confused.

"That's because you have a saddle." Astrid said miserably.

This gave the Haddock twins another idea "Saddles!" they said in unison

They went to the forge, where Gobber was, and told their mentor their new plan.

"Saddles? I love it! I've got so many ideas!" Gobber said excitedly. He took a look at the Haddock twins' drawings and tosses them aside "But not like these. Good ones."

"I'm glad you're excited. But I still think there are some things in our designs you could use. I mean, you _did_ teach us everything I know."

"Exactly. That's why you should let Gobber do what Gobber does best. I've been making saddles since you were in diapers. In fact, I _made_ your diapers." Gobber informed them.

"Okay. That's information that's better off not knowing." Hicca said shaking her head.

Hiccup ignored that and tried to get his point across "I know you know what you're doing. But keep in mind, every dragon is different. So you need to adjust the-"

"Hiccup." Gobber said, interrupting him.

"But-"

"Hiccup."

"But, I just think-"

"Hicc. Up._ I _may have taught you and Hicca everything you two know, but I haven't taught you two everything I know_._

"He's got a point, bro. He's been a blacksmith even before we were born." Hicca pointed out.

Hiccup decides to give in and leaves with his sister. Gobber then got to work on the designs for the saddles.

Later on in the night Hiccup, Hicca, Toothless and Midnight could hear Gobber singing in the forge while working.

_I've got my axe_

_And I've got my mace, _

_And I love my wife with the ugly face! _

_I'm a Viking through and through! Hmmm!_

"You know, he doesn't sing that song unless he's actually very happy. I think we did a good thing." Hiccup said hopeful.

"It will be interesting to see what kind of saddles he'll make for tomorrow, considering he's not going with our designs." Hicca said.

The next day, at the Academy, the teens and their dragons are gathered to see Gobber's handiwork.

"Alright, this is an exciting day for all of us. Gobber has been working hard to-" Hiccup started to announce.

Gobber interrupted him "I think they might want to hear from the artist himself." He proudly continued the announcement "I've made a lot of saddles in my day. Horse, donkey and now, dragon. But these saddles are special. They're like my children; that is if you strapped your child to a flaming reptile and rode it. So without further ado-" He unveils the saddles.

Unfortunately, Hiccup and Hicca noticed that these saddles were a bit _different._

"Wow, Gobber. This-this is certainly _not_ what I imagined." Hiccup said surprised

Gobber, not understanding what Hiccup meant replied cheerfully "How could it be? I'm Gobber! Nobody knows what it's like to live in here." He tapped his head with his prosthetic hand.

"Unfortunately, that is true." Hicca muttered, now worried about the outcome of this.

Hiccup notices the saddle design for Snotlout and saw that it had an added feature "Is-is that-?" He stuttered.

"Yep! Flamethrower." Gobber said. He gave a demonstration of the flamethrower. "Didn't see that one coming did ya?"

"Uh...no, not for dragons. They come with one built in, actually."

"I know, but can ya ever really have to much firepower?" Gobber asked, still not understanding Hiccups' point.

"For a dragon with the ability to coat itself with flames?" Hicca asked rhetorically.

The Thorston twins loaded large rocks into each of their catapults that were built on their saddles and launch them, only to have both Barf and Belch struck in the head. They fall to the ground.

"Ow!" Ruffnut yelled as she fell off her dragons' head.

"Uh, catapults for the twins? Not such a good idea." Hiccup pointed out. Gobber just shrugs.

"Uh, Gobber?" Raeda called out getting their attention. "How am I supposed to get on this thing?" She asked, looking at her saddle strapped onto Sparkfire. The saddle was outlined with spikes, making it impossible for the raven haired girl to get on the saddle without getting stabbed.

Fishlegs' saddle is equipped with four large maces, which Meatlug has a hard time staying above ground with. "You can do it, girl! Think light." Fishlegs said, encouraging his dragon. Meatlug got tired and fell to the ground.

**"**Oh, come on! You can't tell me _my_ saddle is heavier than Fishlegs!" Gobber said.

"My mom says I'm just husky." Fishlegs replied sensitively.

Snotlout tries to put his flamethrower saddle on Hookfang, but the dragon refuses, throwing it off and thrashing around.

"Come on, Hookfang. What's wrong with you?" Snotlout asked getting frustrated. He tried putting his hand on Hookfangs' snout but the dragon just turned away "That's it. Someone's trading with me."

"Yeah, sure. I'll trade my perfect dragon for an angry oven." Tuffnut said sarcastically.

"No deal, Snot." Raeda said.

It seemed that only one saddle was working perfectly for the rider and the dragon "This saddle's actually pretty good." Astrid commented as she flew around Stormfly with the saddle on.

"Wait 'til you try the horn!" Gobber told her.

"Oh no." Hicca said, covering her ears just in case.

Astrid blows into the horn, which increased in size. The bigger it is, the more amplified the sound is. This startles Stormfly and she sends spines flying, pinning Snotlout to the wall, much to the Jorgenson boys' dismay.

"Really? Again?"

Seeing how this was turning out, Hiccup turned to his mentor "So, anyway, I-I think we're really gonna need to make a few-"

"Changes!" Gobber said, interrupting him with a smile. "I'm way ahead of you. I've got so many ideas! It's gettin' crowded up here." He chuckled pointing to his head. Hiccup and Hicca exchange a look of worry.

After the session finished and everyone left, Hiccup and Hicca stayed back to clean up the arena, which is now full of burn marks.

"My Odin! This place looked better when we were killing dragons here!"Stoick said as he entered the Arena, looking around in surprise.

"It does look like a battle just took place." Hicca admitted, looking around.

"Yeah, we sort of got 'Gobbered'." Hiccup said.

"Well, you know Gobber. He means well, he just doesn't always _do_ well. So what are you going to do about him?" Stoick asked his children.

"We're going to clean up his messes and re-do his work." Hiccup said and his sister nodded in agreement.

Stoick sighed "Look; Gobber's like family-"

"Yeah, we know he is! That's why we can't say anything to him." Hiccup said, interrupting him.

"No, son, that's why you two _have_ to. It's not fair to either of you and it's not fair to Gobber." Stoick explained.

"He has a point." Hicca admitted.

Hiccup started getting frustrated "Why do _we_ have to say something to him?! _You_ didn't! You just passed him off to us!"

"That's what the chief does; he delegates. Look, I gave you two this Academy because it's the best thing for Berk. Now you guys have to do what's best for the Academy. And I'm sorry, but what's best is very rarely what's easy."

"Yeah, we noticed." Hicca said, dreading what she and her brother will have to tell their mentor.

As Stoick walked his children out of the Academy, he noticed Snotlout still hanging on the wall by the Nadder spikes. He seemed to be asleep "What about him?"

"Leave him. He's going for a record." Hiccup informed him.

"Enough said." Stoick said, deciding to let his nephew be.

"Well, here we go. It's now or never." Hicca said as she Midnight, Toothless and Hiccup stood outside the forge.

"Hey, you never know. Maybe Gobber finally looked at our plans and is actually making the saddles better." A small explosion was then heard inside the forge.

"You were saying." Hicca said.

"Or not."

The Haddock twins then went inside the forge and saw Gobber raising a crossbow at them.

"Gobber? Don't shoot!" Hiccup exclaimed.

"I would never shoot either of you, Hiccup. Unless I absolutely had to." Gobber replied.

That didn't make either of the twins feel better "He-he, yeah. Still, if you could please put the crossbow down, I know I'd feel better."

"Me too." Hicca added.

Gobber put the crossbow down and turned to the twins "You know, about the weapons, maybe the catapults were a bit much for some of the dragons yesterday."

"So I've gone a different way. I've gotten rid of the two big ones..."

"Gobber, that's great!" Hiccup said. Maybe they didn't have to say no to their mentor.

"...And replaced them with six _little_ ones!"

"Not great." Hicca deadpanned.

Hiccup decided to tell the news "Yeah, um, Gobber we need to talk. Uh, I think it might be time for you to take a little break."

"In case you hadn't noticed, the only time a Viking takes a break is to die." Gobber informed him.

"That can't be true." Hicca muttered.

Hiccup tried again "Maybe "break" is the wrong word. What I mean is, I'm not sure things are working out."

"Well, get back to me when you're sure." Gobber said, oblivious to what Hiccup was trying to

"Okay, I'm sure. Gobber, I'm gonna need to take you off the saddle project." Hiccup said, deciding to get to the point.

Gobber turned to Hiccup, finally realizing what he was trying to say "Are you gettin' rid of me, Hiccup? Now I see why you had me put down the crossbow." He said sadly.

"It's just the saddles! We'll find something else for ya." Hiccup said quickly.

"Yeah, I'm sure there's something out there for you." Hicca added.

"I don't need either of your pity. I've lost and arm and a leg. I think I'll survive losing a job." Gobber said, walking off.

"We really sorry, Gobber." Hiccup called out.

"We really are." Hicca said.

"Well, that was awful." Hiccup said, feeling guilty.

"I know. I feel so bad." Hicca said, also feeling guilty.

"I don't know what could be worse than that." They then heard a roar and saw Hookfang on a rampage "Okay, it looks like we're about to find out."

"You just had to say that, didn't you bro?" Hicca said sighing.

Snotlout then came running over to them "I never... thought... I'd say this" He said panting "... but Hiccup...Hicca... HELP!"

In the village, Hookfang continued his rampage, alarming all the villagers nearby.

"Everybody back away! The dragon's out of control! It's not safe here!" Stoick ordered.

"I don't know what happened! I was just rubbing his head! He usually loves that! But this time, he went crazy." Snotlout explained "My dragon hates me!"

"They do say a pet starts to take on the characteristics of its owner. I think that's what's happening here." Fishlegs guessed.

"Hey!" Snotlout retaliated by punching Fishlegs in the stomach.

"Yeah, I rest my case." Fishlegs wheezed, putting his hands on his stomach.

"When was the last time he ate?" Hiccup asked.

"Not for days." Snotlout answered.

"That must be it! Hookfang must be starving!" Hicca guessed.

Hiccup calmly walked towards Hookfang taking a raw fish with him "Are you hungry, boy?" He gave the fish to Hookfang. The dragon ate it, but immediately spit it out, causing it to land on Stoicks' beard "Oh, sorry, Dad." Hiccup apologised.

Sighing, Stoick took the fish out of his beard and tossed it to Toothless, who ate it up "We've got to bring this dragon under control."

"Don't worry. Hicca and I can do this." Hiccup said, reassuring his dad.

"Easy Hookfang. It's just us. Your friends, Hicca and Hiccup." Hicca said, trying to soothe the dragon.

"There you go. It's gonna be okay." Hiccup said, patting Hookfang on the side of his mouth. Suddenly, Hookfang roared and blasted fire at the twins.

"Hiccup, Hicca, run!" Astrid screamed.

"Get out of there quick!" Raeda yelled.

"Got it!"

"Way ahead of you!"

Toothless and Midnight then attacked Hookfang, both were angry at him for attacking their humans.

"Toothless! Stop!"

"Midnight! Stand down!"

"I've seen enough, Hiccup and Hicca. I'm sorry. We tried it your way." Stoick said. He then left, knowing what needed to be done.

"Gobber! We need you." Stoick said as he came to the blacksmiths' house.

"No, you don't. Nobody needs me. Nobody needs any of us. Not even you, Bertha." Gobber said sadly.

"Are you crying?" Stoick asked, noticing tears in his friends' eyes.

"Course not. Just chopping onions." Gobber answered.

"There are no onions."

"Not anymore. Look what I used to chop them with." Gobber said, holding his sword.

"There's a dragon in the plaza that's out of control."

"Then why don't you call Hiccup or Hicca? Or both?"

"No Gobber, we need _you_."

Back at the plaza the teens tried to come up with a plan to stop Hookfang.

"Come on, guys! Hurry up! Think! What haven't we tried?" Hiccup urged. He then noticed Snotlout pointing at something "Snotlout, you have an idea?"

"Gobber!" Snotlout whispered, paling.

"Stand back. I came here to do what I do best." Gobber announced, armed with weapons.

"He's gonna kill my dragon." Snotlout said, getting upset.

"No, he's not." Hiccup said, trying to reassure his cousin.

"Uh, yeah, he is." Tuffnut said.

"You don't use that stuff to butter toast." Ruffnut said.

"Well, I mean, we would, but you don't." Tuffnut added.

"Guys, not helping at all!" Raeda hissed at the Thorston twins.

"Dad, you can't be serious! Hookfang is Snotlouts' dragon." Hiccup said, trying to stop them.

"I'm sorry, Hiccup, but sometimes you have to fall back on the old ways." Gobber said grimly.

"But he's a good dragon." Hiccup pleaded

"He's a good dragon!" Snotlout repeated in a whisper.

"There's probably just something wrong with him." Hiccup said.

"There's definitely something wrong with him!" Snotlout said, on the verge of tears.

"There has to be a reason Hookfang is acting like this. We should have him checked out before we do anything drastic." Hicca begged.

"We have to try to help him. We can't just get rid of him because he's having a bad day." Hiccup added.

"A bad day for a dragon can be a disaster for us. That's not a risk I am willing to take." Stoick said before turning to his friend "Gobber."

Gobber nodded and attacked Hookfang. The dragon tried to retaliate by blasting fire at him but no fire came out.

"Ha! You're all out of fire!" Gobber said. He used this opportunity to shoot bolas, which succeeded in capturing the dragon. Gobber then made his way for the kill

"I can't let you do this." Hiccup said, as he moved to stop Gobber.

"Neither can I." Hicca said, joining her brother. They both latched themselves onto Gobbers' arm

"There's no choice. It has to be done." Gobber said.

Struggling against his bonds, Hookfang roared in their faces, causing the three of them to stop and stare at his mouth

"Whoa." Hicca said, surprised by what she saw.

"Do you see that?" Gobber asked

"I do." Hiccup replied. He and his sister then let go of Gobbers' arm.

"Time to put this beast out of its misery." Gobber said before charging at the dragon.

"Hiccup! Hicca! What are you two doing?" Astrid asked, shocked by their actions. Hiccup just held out his hand in response

"Don't worry Astrid. It's going to be fine." Hicca said.

All of them watched as Gobber jumped on Hookfangs' snout. After a bit of struggle, Hookfang threw the blacksmith to the ground. Though it seemed that the dragon was finally calm.

"Ah! You didn't kill him!" Snotlout said in relief.

"For a toothache? What kind of lunatic are you?" Gobber asked, holding up the tooth.

Snotlout happily ran to his dragon, who lifted him up with his snout. However, seeing the others looking at him, Snotlout regained his composure. "Stop it. Stop it." He got off Hookfangs' snout "Ugh, I don't know where that came from. Can you train that out of him or...?" He asked, earning eye rolls from everyone.

"Yeah, sure. We'll work on that." Hicca said sarcastically.

"Thank you, Gobber. A bad tooth; I can't believe I didn't think of that." Hiccup said.

"Neither can I." Hicca admitted.

"That's because you're not Gobber! I've forgotten more about dragons than most men will ever know." Gobber replied "Well, better go put the girls away." He referred to his weapons and started to walk away, when Hicca and Hiccup got an idea.

"Gobber! Not so fast!" Hiccup called out.

"Who says you have to put them away." Hicca asked.

Gobber turned back at them smiling, already knowing what they have in store for him. The next day, he started his newest job; a dragon dentist.

**_When the world around you changes, the good men find a way to change with it. And Gobber is one of those good men. In fact, he's one of the best. _**

_I've got my axe _

_And I've got my mace, _

_And I love my wife with the ugly face!_

_I'm a Viking through and throouugghh!_


	3. Animal House

**Disclaimer: I do not own How to train your dragon or the series.**

**Chapter 3: Animal House**

**_Here on Berk, we made peace with the dragons._**

It was another peaceful day on Berk, with dragons flying around while some were helping the villagers with their daily tasks.

******_We're finally living and working together...and it only took us three hundred years. There's one slight problem..._**

Suddenly, a Deadly Nadder and a Monstrous Nightmare got into a fight. They landed on one of the sheep farms.

******_We forgot to tell the animals._**

Oblivious to the sheeps watching them, the two dragons continued to fight. This caused the sheeps to panic. They thought the dragons were invading Berk again. Terrified, the sheeps scattered around the pen.

"Oh, not again. You go on now... you get, get, shoo!" Mulch said as he and Bucket came up, shooing the two dragons out of the pen. "Now you know you're not supposed to be in here." After getting rid of the two dragons, he turned to the animals "Alright, everybody, time to earn your keep."

Bucket went to the chicken to collect the eggs, but when he lifted one of the chickens there was no egg. "It's chickens who lay eggs, right?" Buckets asked confused.

"Do we really need to go over this again?" Mulch said sighing.

"No..." Bucket answered. However this answer proved to be false when he lifted a sheep, instead.

Mulch sighed again "Apparently we do. Well, pay attention Bucket. Wool. Eggs. Milk." He explained pointing to the sheeps, the chickens and the yaks "Was that so hard now, see?"

The confused look on Buckets' face says it was.

"Ugh. Observe." Mulch said. He grabbed a stool to sit on and started to milk a yak "Just grab the udder, like so, and pull." He grabbed the udder and pulled, but no milk came out. "Uh, pull." He tried again, but still no milk. "Pull!" This time the yak got annoyed and kicked the farmer away. "Uh-oh. I think we're empty. That's not good."

Meanwhile, Hiccup, Toothless, Astrid and Stormfly were on one of the snowy mountains trying a new sport they invented called dragon boarding. All four were having the time of their lives with this new activity.

"Yahoo!"

"Ha-ha-ha!"

Not wanting to let Hiccup and Toothless get ahead of her and Stormfly, Astrid silently commanded her dragon to shoot spikes at them. Luckily Hiccup and Toothless swerved out of the way to avoid the spikes.

"Whoa! Hey, Astrid!" Hiccup shouted.

"Oops, did I do that?" Astrid asked innocently.

Hiccup decided to retaliate by having Toothless glide near Stormfly and extend his wing to block Astrid and Stormflys' view. "Hey! Not fair!" Astrid shouted, trying to see where she's going. Toothless then moved his wing in time for Astrid to see an oncoming branch covered in snow "AH!" Her face hit the branch as Stormfly didn't have enough time to swerve away. "So it's gonna be like that, huh?!" Astrid asked, while wiping the snow away from her face.

"I have no idea what you're talking about!" Hiccup replied with the same innocence Astrid used. Seeing a pile of snow ahead gave Astrid an idea. She got Stormfly to blast the snow, causing it to fly in Hiccup and Toothless' path. This caused Toothless to spin out of control. "Whoa! Hey!"

"It was her idea. But I approve! Ha-ha!" Astrid said, smiling in triumph. She is going to win now!

As soon as Toothless stopped spinning, he and Hiccup worked to catch up with the girls. But a noise made Hiccup look over his shoulder and see an avalanche heading their way "Uh-oh!" He tried to get Toothless to fly, but it wasn't working. "His tail's frozen!" Hiccup discovered after looking at the iced up prosthetic tail. "Astrid!" He called out. Astrid looked behind her and saw the avalanche. She and Stormfly quickly flew out of there, while Hiccup moved to Toothless' tail to get it unstuck.

"HICCUP!" Astrid yelled when she saw that the boys were heading to a gorge. "Ah! Hold on!" She steered Stormfly to get close to Hiccup and Toothless.

"No! Go back!" Hiccup shouted. But Astrid didn't listen and extended her hand for Hiccup to take. Hiccup grabbed Astrids' hand, but it was too late as he and Toothless fell into the gorge, pulling Astrid and Stormfly down with them.

All four of them were trapped, cover in snow and darkness

"Astrid?" Hiccup called out, recovering from the fall.

"Over here. Hiccup, I'm freezing." Astrid replied, shivering.

"Come here. Where are the dragons?" He got the answer to his question when he saw a plasma blast fired above him. "Toothless?"

That plasma blast was then followed by a blast of flame "Stormfly?" Astrid called out. The two dragons worked together to blast through the snow barrier, allowing light to pass through. This surprised the two teens as neither of them gave any command to their dragons to do so.

"Whoa." Hiccup breathed.

"Yeah..." Astrid muttered.

"I see daylight!"

"We're gonna get out of here!" Astrid said in relief.

"Look what they did." Hiccup said amazed.

"They saved our lives."

They then looked at each other and realized that they had their arms wrapped around each other the whole time! They both blushed and backed away from each other, feeling awkward and embarrassed.

"Uh, um...that was...so..." Hiccup said nervously. "So, we're good now?"

"G-good as new..." Astrid said, equally nervous as she brushed some of her bangs away from her face.

"Be glad my sister wasn't here to see that." Hiccup said. Astrid nodded in agreement. If Hicca ever saw or heard what happened, she would endlessly tease both of them.

"Ow!" Hiccup said as Astrid gave him a light punch to the shoulder, breaking the awkwardness.

Back at the farm, Mulch and Bucket called Stoick and Gobber, hoping those two could help them with their new crisis.

"Ah, uh... there it is, mm-hmm!" Gobber said as he examined a yak. "Just what I thought. She's not giving milk... none of them are." He reported.

"We know that, Gobber. We want to know why." Stoick said.

Gobber thought of this for a second before he spoke "This reminds me of the time I moved my mother in with my goat. She was mean, ornery, ate everything in sight. The goat was so scared of her, she couldn't give milk."

"So, what are you saying, Gobber?" Stoick asked, wondering where he's going with this.

"Mothers and goats don't mix." Gobber stated "Same with farm animals and dragons. We stopped fighting dragons, so now they're around all the time. The animals are spooked."

A dragon then flies down by the farm, causing the frightened sheeps to drop to immediately drop to the ground.

"Like I said, spooked." Gobber repeated.

Stoick, Gobber and Mulch then notice Bucket moaning in pain, clutching his head "Uh-oh. Your bucket's not tightening up on ya, is it?" Mulch asked worried.

"No, I'm just... FIIIIIIINE!" Bucket yelled in agony.

"Well, whenever his bucket gets tight it means a storm is coming." Mulch explained to Stoick and Gobber.

"No storm, everything's fine." Bucket said frantically.

"Bucket..." Mulch scolded, not wanting his friend to lie.

"I don't want there to be a storm! If lighting strikes me bucket, I could end up less intelligent." Bucket said.

Mulch tried to pull the bucket out of his friends' head "Oh, ho-ho! That's one tight bucket! And the tighter the bucket, the bigger the storm." He remarked.

"But that's crazy. Storms don't hit this early in the season." Stoick said, not believing the fact that a bucket can predict storms.

"And besides, who ever heard of predicting the weather with a bucket? That's what chicken bones and goose feet are for." Gobber said.

"If you recall that bucket of his predicted the Blizzard of Olaf!" Mulch reminded him.

"That was a bad one! It took us a week just to dig Mildew out." Bucket recalled.

"And the rest of our lives to wonder why we bothered." Mulch said "Trust the bucket, Stoick."

"You trust the bucket. I want a second opinion." Stoick said.

He and Gobber went to pay a visit to the village elderly. "Gothi, I've come for your council. Is there going to be a storm?" The mute elderly used her staff to draw some symbols on her porch.

"What's she saying, Gobber?" Stoick asked.

Gobber read out loud "She says: 'What do you think?' Huh?"

This made both the men confused as they looked at Gothi. The elderly sighed and pointed her staff to her house which had sandbags lining it and all the windows bolted shut.

"How can you be so sure? Was it the chicken bones? Or the goose feet?" Stoick asked.

She drew again in the sand and Gobber read it out loud "She says she could hear Bucket's screaming from way up here."

The two men then exchanged a look. Maybe they should trust the bucket after all.

On one of the watchtowers, Hiccup and Astrid returned to the village and gathered Hicca, Raeda, Snotlout and Fishlegs to tell them what happened in the gorge.

"...And then the dragons used their wings to block the snow." Hiccup said, finishing the story.

"I've never heard of anything like that. Not even in the Book of Dragons." Fishlegs said fascinated.

"Another new thing to add in the book." Hicca noted, taking out her journal.

"I know! It was incredible! It was as if their protective instincts just kicked in!" Astrid said.

"Who'd believe it? The dragons we fought for years came to our rescue." Hiccup said, looking at Toothless and Stormfly in awe.

"It was very lucky for both of you that they did." Raeda commented.

"Yeah, if it weren't for them, we would've frozen to death." Astrid said, thankful to Stormfly and Toothless.

"You know what? You could've used your own bodies to keep each other warm." Fishlegs suggested innocently.

It became clear that Hiccup and Astrid missed out a part of their story. The two of them then realized that they were sitting close to each other again. They immediately scooted away from each other, blushing.

"Um..."

"Who would do that?"

"That's crazy."

"Really?" Hicca asked, noticing their sudden awkwardness. She wasn't the only one.

"Is there something from the story you're not telling us?" Raeda asked trying to sound innocent.

"You know what Rae? I think there is." Hicca said grinning, also trying to sound innocent. This caused Astrid and Hiccup to blush more, to Hicca and Raedas' amusement.

"Hey, Astrid. If you're still cold..." Snotlout offered holding his arms out and puckering his lips.

Forgetting the awkwardness, Astrid became annoyed and punched the catapult she was leaning against. This caused the snow on the catapult to fall on Snotlout. "Hey!" He said in a muffled voice.

"Hey, Hiccup! Hicca!" Tuffnut called out. "Your father's looking for both of you."

"He looked angry." Ruffnut commented.

"He's looked angry since the day we were born. But I'm sure there's no connection." Hiccup said sarcastically as he got on Toothless.

"Fingers crossed there's not." Hicca said as she and Midnight flew off with the boys.

At the Haddock household, Stoick explains the situation to his children. "There's a bad storm comin'. We could be locked in. We might not be able to hunt or fish for months!"

"But it's way too early for a storm. We're in the middle of winter! Devastating Winter isn't due for another month!" Hiccup said

"We would know since we usually get sick around that time." Hicca added.

"Not according to Gothi." Stoick said referring to the weather.

"Well, what are we supposed to do? Neither of us can control the weather!" Hiccup pointed out.

"No...but you two can control dragons. If they don't stop scaring the animals we won't have any provisions to live on." Stoick explained. Mulch and Bucket then came in. "Ah! Any luck?" The chief asked.

"Not a drop. And this is after yankin' on that poor yak for three hours!" Mulch answered, holding an empty bucket. The adults then turned to Hicca and Hiccup.

"But it's not like the dragons are trying to be scary. I mean, they don't even eat farm animals. They eat _fish_!" Hiccup stated.

"Yeah, which is why it's okay for them to stay in the village." Hicca pointed out

"True but they're huge, they breathe fire, and now that we've made peace with them, they're _everywhere_. The animals are terrified of them." Gobber said.

"Here's where you two jump in and say 'We'll fix this'." Stoick said.

"Okay. But how long do we have before the storm hits?" Hiccup asks

"About a week." Mulch answered

"No problem. More than enough time." Hiccup said.

"Yeah we just need to think up a plan and work to execute-" Hicca was then cut off by Bucket as he screamed in pained and clutched his head.

"Correction: three days, six hours." Mulch corrected.

"Uh, okay... less time... might be more of a problem." Hiccup commented.

"Less planning, more executing." Hicca said.

The Haddock twins gathered the other dragon riders, the dragons and the animals in the Academy and they worked to get the animals to get along with the dragons.

"Come on, big boy. You can do it. Come on." Hiccup coaxed trying to push a stubborn yak close to the dragons. "You'll really like them if you get to know them."

"The dragons _look_ scary but they're just big, scaly reptiles." Astrid said to the animals.

"Just like Snotlout." Tuffnut snickered.

Snotlout did not take well to that insult and grabbed Tuffnut, getting ready to punch him but then he paused. "You're the _guy_, right?"

"No." Tuffnut said in a high-pitched voice, trying to avoid the punch.

"Okay, what if we look at this from an animal's perspective?" Fishlegs suggested. He got on all fours and started imitating a sheep. "Oh, hello, Mr. Dragon! I'm just a little sheep here... walking... doing sheep things... Baaa!" The sheeps did not look impressed by that. They don't talk at all and they certainly wouldn't speak to a dragon like that! Fishlegs continued his impersonation and turned to the others "Baaa! You know, he doesn't really seem so big and-" He didn't finish that as a nearby Monstrous Nightmare roared in his face! Scared, Fishlegs scrambled to where Meatlug was and hid under her. "Sorry! But I'm siding with the sheep on this one."

"That's helping." Raeda said sarcastically.

"Look, Hicca and I have learned that once you have a positive experience with something you're afraid of, it isn't so scary anymore." Hiccup said.

"Sorry, but I beg to differ. Certain fears can be too traumatic to face. It might make things worse if you face them a second time around." Raeda said, as a memory came back to her.

Knowing what her best friend was referring to, Hicca spoke up "Well, you never know if you don't try Rae. Who knows maybe facing your fears the second time around might get rid of them."

Hiccup tried to get them back on the task at hand "Okay, here you go boys... over here." He herded three sheeps near a Monstrous Nightmare "And that's what we'll have to do with these sheep. We gotta prove to them that they have nothing to fear-" While he was saying this the Monstrous Nightmare started sniffing one of the sheeps in curiosity and accidently sneezed fire on the sheep, causing the poor animal to run panicking. Hiccup managed to stop the sheep while his sister put out the fire. "Ooh-aaah-at this rate we'll never get any milk or eggs!"

Meanwhile, Stoick and Gobber went to the newly made food storage to check on their supplies for the blizzard. "Just as I feared; we haven't had time to fully stock the food store house!" Stoick noted "If this storm is as bad as I think it is, we're never going to survive!"

"Not with this inventory." Gobber commented as they started to bolt the doors of the food storage closed.

"We're going to need everything we can get from those chickens and yaks."

"I'm not really comfortable putting my fate in the hands of a brainless bird and a big woolly beast that sleeps in its own dung." Gobber said.

"Well luckily our fate isn't in their hands. It's in my sons' and my daughters'." Stoick said, confident that his children will be able to pull off the job.

Little did he know that his children weren't really making the progress he was hoping for.

"Another way for the animals to overcome their fear is to show them that dragons are afraid of things too." Hiccup explained to Raeda, Ruffnut, Tuffnut, Snotlout and Fishlegs who all looked at him with doubt.

Astrid supported Hiccups' theory "Remember Magnus the Merciless? He was a pretty scary guy." Fishlegs shuddered as he remembered the terrifying Viking "I was afraid of him until I learned that he was afraid of the dark."

"So during the day: merciless." Tuffnut said.

"And during the night: Tuffnut!" Ruffnut said, pointing at her brother. Tuffnut punched her on the shoulder "Ow!"

"Hey! That's a real problem." Tuffnut said defensively.

"I'm just saying, knowing he was afraid of something made him less scary to me." Astrid said, continuing her explanation.

"Yes, so let's show the yaks that dragons are afraid of things, too." Hiccup said, holding two eels in his hands. He held the eels in front of the dragons, who backed away in fear.

"I think its working!" Astrid said, seeing the yaks noticing the dragons' reaction to the eels. But she spoke too soon as Hiccup accidently dropped one of the eels. The eel then slid close to the dragons. Panicking, the Monstrous Nightmare flicked its' tail and sent a nearby sheep flying to the wall!

Astrid walked to Hiccup, who looked frustrated "Don't worry." She said.

"Worry? I-I'm not worried! Do I look worried?" Hiccup said nervously.

"Is that a rhetorical question?" Hicca asked.

Outside, the wind was picking up speed as the storm came. "Bring in everything you need! We don't know how long we'll need to be hunkered down!" Stoick called out, leading his people to the Great Hall. "How's Bucket doing?" He asked Mulch as the farmer/fisherman carried up the stairs in a wheelbarrow.

"Look at him! He usually loves a wheelbarrow ride." Mulch replied as Bucket groaned in pain.

"Mulch, I'll take care of Bucket. You and Gobber go find the kids and bring them here." Stoick ordered, taking the wheelbarrow. Mulch and Gobber then made their way to the Academy.

Back at the Academy, the teens were chasing after the animals who were scurrying around "Hey! Calm down! Get back over here!" Astrid said to a Monstrous Nightmare, trying to keep it separated from the animals so that they won't panic.

"You know what I'm learning from all this? Chicken are really, well, chicken." Hiccup said as he tried to hold on to two chickens who were clucking away nervously.

"Hey, it's okay little guy. It's okay. Don't panic. These dragons aren't going to hurt you." Raeda said trying to soothe one of the sheeps.

Fishlegs then came up with another idea "What if we showed them how much they have in common with the Dragons?" The other teens looked at him in confusion "They both lay eggs right? A Terrible Terror laid one last week!" Fishlegs then picked up a large green egg and placed it on the ground.

Raeda and Hicca exchanged a worried look. _Isn't Fishlegs forgetting something about a dragons' egg?_

"Uh Fishlegs..." Hicca said, trying to remind him.

"I'm not sure if it's a good idea." Raeda said nervously.

They were ignored as three chickens came close to the egg in curiosity. One of the chickens even sat on top of it. "Alright, see? An egg's an egg, right ladies?" Hiccup said. Apparently, he forgot as well. He and Fishlegs were then given the reminder when the egg exploded, sending the chicken that was sitting on it in the air. Hicca and Raeda face-palmed. "Until it explodes..." Hiccup muttered.

"Seriously. Have we learned nothing from last Snoggletog?" Raeda asked.

"You just had to bring that up., didn't you?" Astrid grumbled, annoyed at the Henderson girl for giving her a reminder of the incident.

"I'll be seeing flying animals in my dreams for a while." Hicca commented.

"Everybody out, the storm is here!" Gobber shouted as he and Mulch came into the Academy.

"But it hasn't been three days and six hours yet!" Hicca said. What were going to do now. The animals were still scared of the dragons.

"Ah, wha-wait! We haven't made any progress with the animals!" Hiccup said.

"Your father wants everyone in the Great Hall!" Gobber informed his apprentice.

"Take the others. I need to stay and keep working with the animals. They're... still afraid." Hiccup said, not wanting to give up.

"I'm staying with him." Hicca said firmly.

"Yeh can't get eggs from a frozen chicken!" Gobber pointed out "We've got to get the animals in the barn!"

However, when they arrived at the barn, they soon saw a new problem.

"So much for the barn." Gobber sighed. Because of the raging storm, the barn was completely covered in snow.

"What now?" Raeda asked.

"There's no other place to hold them!" Mulch shouted as the wind continued to pick up speed.

"Yes there is." Hicca shouted back.

"The Great Hall!" Hiccup yelled, pointing towards the direction of the Great Hall.

"So, we're gonna have the dragons and the animals under the same roof? We know that won't work." Mulch pointed out.

"We have no choice, let's go." Hiccup stated.

"If we don't the animals will freeze to death." Raeda added.

Knowing those two were right, Gobber gave in "Alright, keep 'em separate!"

The teens and the adults worked to herd the animals and the dragons to the Great Hall.

"This way!"

"Come on, come on! Let's go! Oh, this way guys!"

"Keep it moving, keep it moving!"

It seemed that everything is going perfectly but then a lightning bolt struck one of the trees, knocking it down in front of Stormfly. This caused Stormfly to panic and accidently hit Hookfang with her tail. Enraged, Hookfang lights himself on fire, scaring the animals once more and causing them to scurry away. That's when the madness started. The teens started to chase after the animals, trying desperately not to lose them.

"Hey, I got this under control!" Snotlout said confidently as he prepared himself for oncoming yaks. He tried to capture the yaks but he got trampled by them instead. "Ow! Ow! Ow! Ooooh...Ow! Okay, everything hurts." He said weakly.

Fishlegs was spun around by some of the animals who came from different directions. He then got trampled by a few sheeps and Ruffnut who was chasing them. Ruffnut then got attacked by a chicken who flew right in her face!

Hiccup had no luck getting any animals either, as he watched the animals disappear in the cold "Aww..." He and his sister exchanged a look and nodded at each other before running to their dragons.

"Where are you going?!" Gobber asked, watching them.

"We're going after them!" Hiccup answered.

"Forget it Hiccup! We'll never get them rounded up in this storm!" Gobber said, trying to get them to stay.

"With Toothless and Midnight, we can! We have to try. If we don't, everyone will starve to death." Hiccup countered.

"This is the fastest way to gather them!" Hicca added.

"No! Your father will kill me if I left either of you out here-!"

Hiccup and Hicca cut him off "Sorry, Gobber!" They then flew away.

"Hiccup! Hicca! Come back here!" Gobber hollered but it was in vain. "Raeda, Astrid, will you two talk some sense-" He started to say turning to the two girls but then he noticed them getting on their dragons as "Ah-No, no, not you guys, too! Astrid! Raeda! You two are not going with-" He then saw the rest of the dragon riders following them "Ach! GET BACK HERE, ALL OF YOU!" He shouted as the six dragons flew away to join the Haddock twins.

At the Great Hall, the villagers huddled near the fire, trying to keep warm. A sudden gust of wind blew the doors open causing everyone to shiver "Move those tables against the doors!" Stoick ordered. Two of the villagers followed his command. But just when they set the tables against the door, it opened again revealing Gobber "Stoick! The barns been destroyed! The animals have scattered!" He informed the chief.

"Where's Hiccup, Hicca and the others?" Stoick asked after he noticed that the eight teens weren't with him.

"I tried to stop him Stoick. They went after the animals." Gobber answered. Stoick immediately got up and went outside, planning on getting the teens back. Gobber followed him.

"I caught these two. I figured at least with these we'd be able to start a new herd." Mulch said as he herded two yaks into the Great Hall.

"You might want to take another look, Mulch." Gobber told him as he walked out.

Mulch did that and realized his mistake "Oh! Uh, never mind boys!" He said sheepishly.

Out in the storm, the eight dragon riders were on the search for the missing animals "You find as many as you can. We'll herd them back to the Great Hall." Hiccup ordered.

"And let's do this fast before we get frostbites." Hicca said shivering from the cold.

"Can we swing by my house? I'd like to get my heavy coat." Fishlegs asked, also shivering.

"Check this out!" Tuffnut shouted, getting his sisters' attention. He then slapped himself. "I'm so cold I can't feel my face." Ruffnut then slapped him as hard as she could. "Didn't feel it!" Tuffnut said in a sing-song voice.

"That takes all the fun out of it!" Ruffnut complained.

Hiccup then spotted the animals "There they are!" He pointed "Come on!"

"Let's do this!" Hicca shouted.

The dragon riders then got to work on their mission.

"Yaks to the left!" Fishlegs spotted.

"Chickens to the right!" Snotlout shouted as he and Hookfang bumped past Fishlegs and Meatlug "Hey! I'm flying here!" Snotlout then got Hookfang to fly close to the chickens who were still running in terror. "Chickens! Over here! Follow me this way. Come on!" Hookfang then noticed that they were flying towards a tree and decided to take over the steering. "Wait. Where are you going? AHHHH!" The two of them then flew around uncontrollably.

Fishlegs tried herding the sheep with Meatlug "Sheep! Hey, sheep, this way! Baaahh! Baah! Baah! Hey, it's working! Baah!" Fishlegs said in joy as he saw that none of the sheeps strayed from the group. But his celebration was cut short when he and Meatlug tried to go under a large, overturned log, only to get stuck there "Baahh..." He bleated miserably. Astrid and Raeda flew Stormfly and Sparkfire past Fishlegs and Meatlug.

"Don't worry Fish." Raeda called out.

"We got them! Ready Rae?" Astrid asked.

"Ready." Raeda nodded.

"Now!" Both Raeda and Astrid commanded their Nadders to shoot spines around the sheeps, creating a pen.

"Gotcha!"

"Yes!"

Suddenly, Snotlout and Hookfang came out of nowhere, still flying uncontrollably. "DUUUHH! GAAAHHH!" Hookfang accidently knocked the spine pen, causing the sheeps to escape.

"Hey!" Raeda yelled.

"Snotlout, what are you doing?!" Astrid demanded, also annoyed that he let the sheeps escape "You're all over the place!"

"_YOU_ TRY HERDING CHICKENS WITH A DRAGON WHO DOESN'T LISTEN TO YOU!" Snotlout hollered while trying to control his dragon.

"Hiccup! Stray sheep!" Astrid pointed out to the one-legged boy.

Hiccup saw the three sheeps running on an icy ledge. The smallest sheep slipped and fell off the ledge. It landed on the icy ground where it slid off the edge of the cliff. The sheep bleated out in terror and closed its' eyes preparing for the impact of the ground. But that never came as a certain Night Fury came to its' rescue. The sheep opened its' eyes and saw Toothless looking at it with his signature gummy smile.

"Good job, bud." Hiccup praised, patting his dragon.

"Incoming!" A voice called out causing Hiccup to look up. He saw his sister and Midnight coming in their direction. "We got as many as we could find." Hicca said as she and Midnight showed the chickens they had in their hands and claws respectively.

Astrid and Stormfly then flew over to them "Hiccup, Hicca, the storm is getting worse! I can't see anything!"

"Midnight, we need a plasma blast to see."

"Come on, bud. Give us some light."

Midnight and Toothless obeyed their riders and each sent a plasma blast in the same direction. The plasma blasts revealed to large figures in the distance. Stray yaks, twelve o'clock!" Hiccup shouted.

That got the Thorston twins attention as they steered their dragon in that direction "I see them! AND THEY ARE _HUGE_!" Tuffnut yelled. The Zippleback grabbed the two figures with its' claws and then turned back to rejoin the group. "I got the yaks." Tuffnut yelled triumphantly.

But a sudden voice made him think otherwise "Put me down! Right now!" Tuffnut and Ruffnut looked down and saw that they didn't get any yaks but rather Stoick and Gobber! The Thorston twins immediately made Barf and Belch release the two men. Stoick landed on the ground while Gobber face-planted to the snow.

"Yaks Hiccup?" Hicca said, turning to her brother.

"Well, I didn't hear you correcting me." Hiccup said defensively

"Do I look like a yak to you?!" Gobber shouted, getting on all fours. Ironically, he was right next to a yak, which actually makes him look similar to the animal.

Hicca and Hiccup landed their dragons to the ground and walked to their father "You shouldn't be out here, Hiccup and Hicca." The chief said sternly, but glad to see them alright.

"Dad, I'm sorry we let you down." Hiccup said apologetically.

"We thought we had things under control but we were wrong." Hicca said.

"It's not your fault, you two." Stoick said reassuring them "I'm taking you back."

"Which way?" Gobber shouted in the howling wind.

"Follow our tracks." Stoick instructed. They turned and saw that the tracks had vanished due to the blizzard.

"So much for that idea." Gobber sighed.

"Sir? What do we do now?" Fishlegs asked as the rest of the teens came up to them

Stoick and Gobber then noticed all the teens shivering from the cold. They've been out here longer than the adults and would freeze to death if nothing is done about it. The chief then came up with an idea. "Everyone, come together." He said holding his arms out. The two adults and eight teens huddled together to stay warm. Toothless and Midnight saw this and got the other dragons' attention. They needed to help the humans.

The dragons formed a circle around the ten Vikings and spread their wings out to cover them. "What are they doing?" Stoick asked confused.

Hiccup smiled, remembering their latest discovery "They're protecting us." He answered.

"It's their natural instinct." Astrid added also smiling. Meatlug, Stormfly, Toothless, Midnight and Sparkfire then lit up small fires in the circle, keeping everyone warm. Toothless then noticed the animals outside the circle, shivering from the cold. He spotted the sheep he rescued earlier and went towards it. The other two sheeps near the smaller sheep moved away in fear, but the smaller sheep stayed where it was. Toothless then pushed the smaller sheep with his snout into the circle. Slowly all the other animals moved inside the circle, getting rid of their fear for dragons.

"Your dragons are really something." Stoick said proudly to his son and daughter.

"Yeah, they are." Hiccup and Hicca replied in unison.

The next morning the storm was gone, leaving behind a dome-shaped pile of snow covering the dragons' wings. The dragons shook off the snow and everyone, Vikings, dragons and animals made their way to the Great Hall. When they walked in the villagers inside cheered, all relieved to see them alright.

"They're back! And they're alright!" Mulch said happily.

"The animals are alright, too!" Bucket pointed out.

"Uh-oh. Here come the dragons."Mulch said elbowing his friend. But he and the other villagers were shocked when Hookfang came in the Great Hall, lowering his wings to allow a group of sheep who were on it to safely jump off. "Will you look at that". Mulch said, amazed that the animals weren't afraid of the dragons anymore.

"Hey everyone!" Astrid shouted, getting everyones' attention.

"The chickens are laying eggs again!" Hiccup announced happily, holding an egg in his hand while carrying a chicken.

"I was right. Chickens do lay eggs." Bucket said.

Once everyone was inside, the doors were locked shut and everyone was prepared to face the winter days.

**_Winter in Berk is long and brutal, and the only way to survive it is if we're all in it together. We made our peace with the dragons when we saw that we could trust them. Turns out they actually have instincts to protect us. All of us. Life on Berk just got a little warmer._**


	4. The Terrible Twos

**Disclaimer: I do not own How to train your dragon or Dragons: Riders of Berk**

**Chapter 4: The Terrible Twos**

In the forest of Berk, the eight dragon riders and their dragons were doing another training exercise; communication between dragon and rider.

"Follow me and Hicca! Low-level evasive maneuvers!" Hiccup shouted while riding Toothless "Come on, bud!"

"Let's go girl." Hicca said to her dragon as they dived through the forest.

**_When you're riding a dragon, communication is key. _**

Hiccup, Toothless, Hicca and Midnight zigzagged through the trees in perfect sync, none of them crashing into the trees or into each other. Raeda and Sparkfire were right behind them also moving through the forest in perfect sync.

**_You almost have to read each other's minds. Or else._**

Snotlout, however, didn't have that much luck as Hookfang kept crashing into tree, though whether it was by accident or on purpose, the Jorgenson boy couldn't tell. "Hey! What are you doing?! Are you trying to kill me?!" Snotlout yelled at Hookfang as they flew out of the trees with Snotlout covered in branches "We gotta go back! I think you missed a branch!" He said sarcastically. Hookfang took that as a command and went back. "Got it!" Snotlout said dazed as he was covered in more branches when they came out of the forest the second time around.

**_And you have to have an open mind, because sometimes, your dragon knows better than you._**

Astrid and Stormfly skilfully maneuvered through the trees and came across a fallen tree. "Stormfly, up!" But Stormfly instead went with her instincts and dived under the tree, knowing that was the better option. This moved sent her rider flying over the tree, but luckily, she managed to catch her. "You were right, Stormfly. It was down. I almost died." Astrid said breathing heavily.

"_Almost_ died? I _would've_ died!" Snotlout yelled while getting some branches out of his nose

"That's a good look for you." Astrid commented. Hearing this, Snotlout immediately shoved the branches back in his nose, not knowing that Astrid was only joking.

Hiccup then noticed someone was missing "Has anyone seen Fishlegs?" He asked

"I saw him yesterday. Does that count?" Ruffnut replied.

"I'll go look for him, you guys stay here." Hiccup said to the other riders. He and Toothless then flew back to the forest to look for Fishlegs. They came to a tree and saw Meatlug stuck on a branch. They then looked down and saw Fishlegs stuck on another tree.

"Oh, there you are, Fishlegs. Are you okay?" Hiccup asked as he and Toothless went to him.

"I'm fine. Just hanging out. It's not like I crashed or anything." Fishlegs said nervously before caving in "Okay, I crashed. There, I said it."

Hiccup grabbed both his legs and tried to pull Fishlegs down, but only succeeded in pulling Fishlegs' pants down "Oops." He said.

"And there goes my dignity." Fishlegs muttered, embarrassed by this.

"Yeah, you're pretty stuck." Hiccup noted. Then he got an idea "I think I know how to get you down, but you have to stay _perfectly_ still."

"Why? What are you going to do?" Fishlegs asked, getting nervous.

Hiccup didn't answer him. Instead, he turned to Toothless "Careful, bud, he's not wearing any pants."

That got Fishlegs more nervous "Huh? Wait a second; what does my lack of pants have to do-" He didn't get to finish the question as Toothless fired a light plasma blast at Fishlegs, knocking him down the tree "OH!" He then got up "Thank you. Um, I believe those are mine." He said awkwardly referring to his pants, which were still in Hiccups' hands.

Hiccup gave him his pants back and then looked up to Meatlug "Now, what are we going to do about Meat" He didn't have to think of anything though as Meatlug suddenly fell down from the tree "... Lug?"

"Can you not tell the others Meatlug broke the trees? She's sensitive about her weight." Fishlegs whispered so that his dragon couldn't hear him.

"How did this happen?" Hiccup asked.

"I don't know! I was just flying along, taking notes on the flora and fauna... typical guy stuff." Fishlegs explained "And something weird jumped out of the bushes. It was like a... flaming squirrel."

"Really? A flaming squirrel?" Hiccup asked dubiously.

"Or a chipmunk."

Hiccup gave Fishlegs a skeptical look

"Or some other flammable rodent."

Another skeptical look.

"I don't know Hiccup, it scared us. Isn't that enough for you?" Fishlegs asked before getting on Meatlug and joining the others.

When they left Hiccup turned to Toothless "Did you hear that? A flaming squirrel. Everyone know there's no such thing as a-" Suddenly, Hiccup and Toothless saw that Fishlegs might not be wrong after all "FLAMING SQUIRREL!" He yelled as he and Toothless ducked behind a log, narrowly avoiding a spinning, flaming creature "Whoa! You saw that, right?" He asked Toothless to make sure he wasn't imagining things. He got out from behind the log and went to inspect the creature. On closer inspection, he found that it was actually a small dragon. "Hey, little guy. Who are you?" Hiccup asked, crouching down. Toothless started growling at the smaller dragon, not trusting it. "Whoa, settle down, big fella!" Hiccup said, trying to calm Toothless "I've never seen anything like him." Toothless continued to growl.  
>"You're not helping." Hiccup said to his dragon "You know, I think we may have discovered a new species here!" Toothless then pulled his human away from the small dragon and tried to persuade him to leave. "Whoa, hey, Toothless! What has gotten into you? Looks like he's hurt! Don't be afraid, I'm a friend." Hiccup then got out some Dragon Nip and offered to the small dragon "Here. It's okay. It's just a little Dragon Nip." It worked as the small dragon ate it up and jumped into Hiccups' arms. Toothless was not happy about this at all as he snarled. "Come on, play nice." Hiccup scolded his dragon before he yelped "AHH! Little dragon, big claws! Come on, let's go. We'll fix you right up."<p>

Hiccup brought the small dragon back to the academy with Toothless following them (the larger dragon still not trusting the smaller dragon). Once there, the other teens looked at the small dragon in fascination.

"This is so exciting! It's a whole new species!" Fishlegs said excitedly.

"If this is an undiscovered species, it could be a serious breakthrough which can go down in history." Hicca said, equally excited.

"Doesn't look like a flaming squirrel to me." Tuffnut commented.

Fishlegs ignored that "We have no idea what it's capable of! There's no telling what it might do."

Tuffnut decided to test it out "Flame! Do it!" He commanded. Instead of producing a flame as commanded, the small dragon pounced on Tuffnut and started biting his nose! "AH! Get it off, get it off, get it off!"

Ruffnut started laughing, amused at her brothers' misfortune. But her enjoyment was cut short when the small dragon decided to go after her instead!

"Oh, that is funny." Tuffnut said, getting up. Now that the small dragon was off him, he was free to enjoy his sisters' sudden misfortune.

"Come on, you guys, this is serious! We have to figure out what to do with him. He's hurt!" Hiccup said.

"_He's_ hurt?" Tuffnut asked incredulously while rubbing his nose. _He_ was the one who got bitten by the small dragon.

"Here, let me see." Hicca offered, taking the small dragon. She gives the small dragon a quick check-up. "No visible signs of injury. But he does seem a bit shaken up." She reported.

"He's just really scared. He'll settle down." Hiccup said.

"Um, new species, remember? We actually don't know what he'll do." Fishlegs pointed out.

"Well, somebody's got to take him home." Astrid said. Immediately everyone, except for Hiccup and Hicca stepped back. It became clear whose home the small dragon was going to go to.

"Well, big guy, here's your somebody." Hiccup said, volunteering to take the dragon home.

"I can imagine what dads' reaction is going to be to this." Hicca said

"No, no, no! He's not staying here. I've got a two-dragon limit!" Stoick refused immediately when he learned about the new houseguest.

"But then he'll be homeless. We need to help him." Hicca protested.

"He's not a very big dragon! Think of him more like... a flaming squirrel." Hiccup suggested.

"Don't want one of those either." He then turned to the two Night Furies "Toothless, Midnight, what are you two waiting for?" He asked as he placed a log in the fireplace. Before either of the Night Furies could light up a fire, however, the new dragon immediately blasted a fire at the fireplace.

"Ah, looks like you two have been torched." Stoick commented to the two Night Furies as he petted the small dragon "Oh, that's his name, by the way. Torch."

"So, he can stay?" Hiccup asked hopeful.

"Well, can't throw him out now! I just named him!" Stoick answered.

While Hicca and Hiccup hi-fived, Toothless still eyed the new dragon wearily. There was no doubt something was going to happen because of that dragon. Midnight looked at her mate worried. Why was he acting like this?

Later, it was Hiccups' turn to bring the food for the dragons. He brought two large baskets for Midnight and Toothless and a plate with one fish for Torch. "Okay, a hundred for you two, and one for you. There you go, guys, your first supper together." He said before leaving the room. Toothless and Midnight were ready to eat their dinner, but then they saw their baskets suddenly empty! They both looked at Torch and realized that the small dragon was behind this. Hiccup came back to the room and saw the two baskets already empty. "Whoa, Toothless! Midnight! You two were sure hungry tonight, weren't you?" Hiccup asked, oblivious to what happened.

He then brought Torch and Toothless to his room, while Midnight went to Hiccas' room, still grumbling about her lost dinner.

"Okay, Torch. This is where you're gonna sleep." Hiccup said setting Torch down on a small rock slab next to Toothless. Torch wasn't comfortable on his own slab and decided to go on Toothless' slab instead, much to the Night Furys' annoyance.

"Aw, look at that. He's made himself at home. Toothless, you don't mind sharing your bed for the night, do you?" Hiccup asked, not seeing Toothless' annoyance. Thinking his dragon is okay with it, Hiccup went to his own bed. "Hope he sleeps through the night. He hardly ate."

Toothless snorted at that. The small dragon hardly ate? Toothless and his mate hardly ate because of that small dragon. "And you? Go to sleep." Hiccup simply said to his dragon before falling asleep. Thoroughly annoyed by what happened today, Toothless curled up on his rock slab and went to sleep.

Outside the village in the forest, was a large dragon coming to the same spot Hiccup, Toothless, Fishlegs and Meatlug were at earlier. When the dragon found it vacated, it gave out an enraged roar. The roar woke both Toothless and Midnight up. They both met up outside and went to investigate where that roar came from. They went to the forest to find the source of the roar and they found a dragon, similar to Torch but a lot bigger. It looked like the dragon was searching for something. Toothless and Midnight immediately put two and two together and both came to a realization. Torch is a baby dragon and the bigger dragon is his mother! The two dragons looked at each other worriedly. They knew how protective mother dragons can be to their hatchlings. This is not good.

The next morning, Hicca and Hiccup brought Torch to the Dragon Academy; both were unaware of what their dragons discovered last night.

"Alright, Torch. Let's figure out what you are." Hiccup said cheerfully.

"Oh! This is so exciting! Documenting a whole new species... learning all about it!" Fishlegs said excitedly.

"Wait, learning?" Tuffnut asked, surprised.

"No thanks." Ruffnut said, wanting to avoid the possibility of studying.

"Come on guys if this is a new dragon then we could be the first to record information about it." Hicca said.

"I think Hicca is on the right track. There's nothing in the Book of Dragons that looks anything like him." Hiccup said, looking at the Book of Dragons.

"We even get to determine what it's called. Heh. That is... that is a really big responsibility. I don't know if I'm ready for that." Fishlegs said, getting more excited.

"I am! I'm gonna name the snot out of it!" Snotlout boasted.

"Good luck with that." Raeda said sarcastically.

"Twenty inches for the wings." Astrid measured.

"That's a big wingspan." Hiccup commented.

"Big Wing! Big Span! Big-Wing-Span!" Snotlout shouted.

"No to all three. Try again." Raeda said to Snotlout.

"May I have the honor of administering the claw-test?" Fishlegs offered. He held up a piece of parchment for Torch. Torch sniffed it curiously and then used the claws to shred the parchment to pieces. "Look at these talons... They're razor-like." Fishlegs said in awe.

"Sharp-Claw! Razor-Feet! Razor-Sharp-Claw-Talon-Feet!" Snotlout tried.

"Hold on. Is he serious?" Tuffnut asked, referring to Snotlout.

"Unfortunately, yes." Hicca answered.

"You know what's next, don't you?" Fishlegs asked.

"No. Not really." Hiccup answered.

"Me neither." Hicca said.

"Only the single most important test to determine a dragon's reaction to eels... The Eel-Reaction-Test!" Fishlegs reminded them. He then brought an eel from a basket and held it up, making the other dragons hiss and back away in fear. Torch, however, did something that shocked the teens. He not only got close to the eel but he also ate it!

"Did he just...?" Raeda asked, not believing what she saw.

"He did." Hicca answered.

"He ate it! He ate the eel!" Fishlegs said amazed.

"Eel Eater! Come on, that's perfect." Snotlout said. The others ignored him.

Hiccup turned to Fishlegs "Fishlegs, has there ever been a Dragon who wasn't afraid of-"

"Never in recorded history. We're in uncharted waters, my friend." Fishlegs answered.

"This is amazing." Hicca said, surprised to see a dragon who eats eels.

"You hear that, Torch? You're one of a kind." Hiccup said to the small dragon.

"Now we need to get him to fly." Fishlegs said.

"Maybe if Torch saw Toothless fly?" Hiccup suggested. He then turned to Toothless. "Toothless! Let's take a ride, bud!" Toothless, however, refused turning his gaze away from the small dragon. "Toothless!" Hiccup called, surprised at his dragons sudden behaviour.

"Don't worry, bro. Midnight and I have got this." Hicca said. "Midnight! Come on! Let's get Torch to fly." She got a surprise though, as her dragon also refused, not looking at Torch. "What?"

"Ha, ha, ha! So much for the dragon trainers." Snotlout taunted. He then got on Hookfang "We've got this! Watch and learn!" But his expression quickly turned into fear as Hookfang started flying around crazily. "HOOOOKFANG!" As soon as they landed, Snotlout quickly regained his composure "Okay, your turn. Don't think you have to live up to that."

"Or better yet, don't have to do anything like that." Raeda advised the small dragon.

Torch then got up, but instead of flying he started circling the ground.

"What's he doing?" Ruffnut asked confused.

"I think something's wrong." Astrid suggested.

"Aw man, we broke him!" Tuffnut cried.

"Can't be. I checked his wings. They're in perfect shape." Hicca said.

"Maybe he can't fly." Hiccup suggested. But then to everyones' shock, Torch started blasting embers from his mouth and slowly rises into the air while still spinning in a circle and emitting ember. He then stopped and landed on the ground.

"Wow!" Hicca said amazed.

"You... are one incredible little dragon!" Hiccup praised.

"Do you think we could get him to do that again? I want to get a sketch of that." Raeda said, her hands twitching to capture what she just saw.

"Whoa... Look at that burn mark!" Ruffnut pointed to the ground.

"I also want to get a sketch of _that_." Raeda said. She then took her sketchbook and charcoal and started sketching away.

"Look at this burn mark." Tuffnut said, holding up his singed hand. Hicca took out her burn cream from her satchel and started treating the burn.

"Did you see how he flew? He spun like... like a typhoon!" Fishlegs said.

"And he came back just like a boomerang!" Astrid added.

"Hot-Spinner! Flaming-Combacker!" Snotlout shouted, trying to get a name.

"No... Typhoomerang." Fishlegs said.

"Typhoomerang...? Nah, I don't get it." Snotlout said. Despite this, everyone agreed that the name of Torchs' species will be known as Typhoomerang.

"Alright let's see; twenty inch wingspan, eats eels, has a unique way of flying..." Hiccup wrote down in the Book of Dragons while Torch was playing around in Hiccups' room. Toothless was at the side, eyeing the smaller dragon wearily. " See this Torch? You're getting your own chapter." Hiccup said, showing the newly written chapter on Typhoomerangs to Torch.

His room door then opened and Hicca and Midnight came in "Hey bro, Rae just gave me her sketch on Torch." She said, giving her brother the drawing.

"Spot on, as always." Hiccup said, admiring his best human friends' work.

While the twins worked on the Typhoomerangs' chapter, Midnight and Toothless' sharp ears caught the sound of a familiar roar in the distance. Knowing where it was coming from, the two dragons nudged their riders, trying to warn them. However, in doing so Toothless and Midnight accidently knocked the charcoal out of Hiccups' hand.

"Toothless! Midnight! Look what you two did!" Hiccup reprimanded the two dragons.

"Seriously, what is it with you two? You guys have been acting weird lately." Hicca said looking at the two dragons with her hands on her hips.

"And now I've got to get more charcoal. Toothless, Midnight, you behave yourself while I'm gone. Can you watch over them sis?" Hiccup asked, turning to his sister.

"Of course." Hicca answered.

Toothless tried to get him to stop. "Hey, it's okay, big guy. I'll be right back." Hiccup said. Then he went, leaving Hicca and the three dragons behind.

Hicca then turned to the two Night Furies "Listen guys, I have absolutely no idea what's going on with both of you but I think-" She didn't get to finish that sentence however as both Toothless and Midnight tried to grab Torch, planning on taking him back to his mother. "Hey! What are you guys doing?! Stop that!" Hicca shouted. But she was ignored by the two dragons. Scared, Torch started blasted fire on the floor. Hicca immediately ran out of the room before she got burned as she was the only one who wasn't fireproof in the room.

She then saw her brother coming back with the charcoal "Uh Hiccup. We have a problem." Hicca informed him.

Alarmed Hiccup went to his room and saw that it was on fire! "Toothless! Midnight!" He shouted. He and his sister quickly grabbed a blanket and tried to smother the flames. As soon as they did so, Hiccup turned to his sister. "What in the world happened here?!"

"After you left, Midnight and Toothless pounced on Torch. Don't ask me why, I have no idea. Torch got scared and started emitting fire." Hicca explained.

Hiccup turned to the two dragons in disbelief "Toothless, Midnight, why did you two do that? What is wrong with both of you? You could've gotten Hicca burned by that." Toothless and Midnight warbled their apologises. Midnight, especially, was feeling guilty about nearly getting her rider burned to ashes.

Hiccup sighed "Okay, looks like I am going to be sleeping downstairs tonight. We can fix the burnt room problem tomorrow." Hiccup said. He went downstairs with Toothless and Torch in tow.

Midnight warbled another apology to her rider. Hicca sighed. "Just go to sleep Midnight." She simply said before heading to bed. She knew her dragon would never mean any harm to her but she was just frustrated at why she and her mate were acting like this.

Late at night, when everyone was asleep, Toothless and Midnights' ears perked up at a sound of a roar from the distance. Knowing what it was, the two decided to go and see if the mother dragon was anywhere near the village. Midnight looked at her rider sleeping and then got an idea. She started nudging Hicca, getting her human to wake up.

"Not now Midnight. I don't want to go on a late night flight right now. Especially with the way you've been behaving." Hicca muttered, turning away from her dragon. Midnight sighed and rolled her eyes. Looks like it's time for plan B. Hicca got a jolt when Midnight used her mouth to grab the girl by her tunic and flew her out the window! Toothless immediately followed them on foot. "Midnight! What are you doing now?! Get me down! I'm not joking." But Hicca immediately quieted down when she heard a roar. "What was that?" She wondered.

Midnight landed in the forest behind some bushes and the two girls were then joined by Toothless. Hicca peered over the bushes, trying to see what's going on and she was surprised by what she saw. A wild boar was attacking two Typhoomerangs, the same size as Torch. What Hicca saw next gave her the shock of her life! Then came the larger Typhoomerang that was clearly the younger Typhoomerangs' mother. Enraged that the boar was attacking her hatchlings the mother dragon fired her flames around the boar, surrounding it so that it couldn't escape! Hiccas' eyes widened at the sight. Midnight quickly grabbed her rider again and flew back home while Toothless ran back on foot.

As soon as she got back to her room, Hicca tried to process what happened. "That larger dragon must be the actual size of a Typhoomerang. And those smaller dragons must be her babies seeing how protective she was of them. If that's right then Torch must also be a baby dragon. Wait a second. We stumbled upon a baby Typhoomerang and brought it home. Now a larger Typhoomerang, a mother dragon, is suddenly in our forest." Her eyes widened again when the realization hit her. She turned to Midnight. "Do we have that Typhoomerangs' hatchling?" Midnight nodded to that question. "Was that what you two were trying to tell us?" Midnight nodded again. Hicca smacked her forehead. How could she and her brother been so blind? "Oh Midnight." She hugged her dragon. "I am so sorry I doubted you and Toothless earlier." Midnight crooned in return. As long as her rider could forgive her for nearly burning her, Midnight could forgive Hicca for this. "Wait, Toothless!" She suddenly remembered her brothers' dragon and ran down the stairs, tiptoeing past her brother and opened the door. Toothless, who was already standing outside then came in. Hicca hugged him as well "Oh Toothless. I am so sorry." Toothless licked her in response. 'At least we got one twin to believe us.' A thought then came to Hicca. "If that mother dragon was willing to burn that boar for attacking her babies, just imagine what she would do to this village if she finds out we have her other baby." She whispered to Midnight and Toothless. "We have to do something about it and I know just what to do." She quietly tip-toed to where Hiccup was sleeping and gently woke up Torch. Torch woke up and looked at the human curiously. "Okay, Torch. Come on. Time to take you to your mother." Hicca whispered holding her arms out. Torch jumped in her arms and Hicca went outside, jumped on Midnight and flew into the forest. Once there, she settled Torch on the ground. "Okay, there you go. Your mother will come for you any moment now." She and Midnight then heard a roar in the distance. "Maybe sooner than we think. Come on Midnight! Let's get out of here!" She and Midnight flew off, back to the house "Okay. Now I'll just tell Hiccup what happened in the morning, he can apologise to both of you and then things can go back to normal." Hicca said. She, Midnight and Toothless then went to bed, all were glad that this was over, However, unbeknownst to any of them, the small dragon made its' way back to the Haddock household, nestled near Hiccup and went to sleep. Looks like Torch got a bit too attached to the Haddock boy.

In the morning, Toothless woke up stretching but then froze when he heard a familiar roar. 'That dragon is still here? She sounds angrier than before. Didn't she find her hatchling?' Toothless then went to the forest to investigate, not noticing a certain small dragon sleeping next to his human. After he left, Hiccup woke up, got ready for the day and decided to head to the forge with Torch to talk to Gobber about his latest problem with Toothless.

"It's weird. It's like, Toothless is jealous." Hiccup said to Gobber who was working on dragon teeth. "Which is great. So... my first girlfriend is a dragon." Hiccup answered sarcastically.

"Another thing we have in common." Gobber remarked "Something must be going on under the surface. Dragons are complex creatures, Hiccup. They operate on many emotional levels. Me? I've only got the one. By the way, where is your sister? I rarely see you two separated." He asked once he noticed that the Haddock girl was not here.

"She and Midnight are still sleeping. Which is odd because they're usually the first ones up." Hiccup answered. While that is true, but after last night Hicca had decided to sleep in today and her dragon wasn't complaining.

Suddenly Toothless arrived. He went to the forest where the mother Typhoomerang was and discovered that she was still searching for her baby; meaning Torch never went to her. What's worse was that the mother dragon was getting closer to the village. Knowing that would cause problems, Toothless went on a search for Torch to bring him back to his mother. His search led him to the forge where he saw Torch with his Hiccup again!

"Whoa! Okay, Toothless!" Hiccup said trying to calm Toothless who was roaring, trying to get Torch. "You see? This is what I've been talking about." Hiccup said to Gobber, gesturing to Toothless. "Toothless, settle down!" But Toothless wouldn't listen. The mother dragon was getting closer and closer to the village and he needed to give her back her baby before she could hurt anyone; namely Hiccup. Toothless grabbed Torch and headed in the direction of the forest. "Gobber! Grab him!" Hiccup shouted.

Gobber came in front of Toothless and held his arms out. "You want to dance, big boy?'Cause I've got my dancing shoe on!" He then leapt and managed to grab Toothless' tail just before the dragon made a run for it "Gotcha! Whoa!" He was then dragged along by Toothless' tail into the forge. "My panpipes! Now I can get the band back together!" Gobber said cheerfully, forgetting the task at hand. After a bit of struggle, Torch managed to free himself from Toothless and started running away from the larger dragon.

Torch quickly hid behind Hiccups' feet. Deciding that enough is enough, Hiccup shouted "Toothless! _BACK! DOWN!_" He and Toothless were inches away from each other locked in a stare-down. The stare-down was broken when Gobber decided to play his panpipes. "Not. Helping." Hiccup grumbled, annoyed.

"Sorry." Gobber apologised, putting the panpipes down.

Hiccup then turned to Toothless "I don't know what's gotten into you, but I don't like it." Toothless simply walked away from there. Gobber then started playing a more sorrowful tune on the panpipes, earning a glare from Hiccup.

"What?"

Hiccup managed to get on Toothless and decided to take him to the Cove for a time-out Toothless tried to go in another direction. "Whoa! WHOA!" Hiccup yelled as he tried to get control of the flying. "Toothless! The cove... is this way! Where are you going? No! You're going to the cove!" They managed to make it to the Cove and Hiccup got off Toothless' saddle. "Okay. You've gotta stay here. I never thought bringing Torch home would lead to this. I've gotta separate you two until I can figure this out." Toothless growled and came in front of Hiccup, trying to keep him from leaving "Toothless... This is serious. You've got to stay here." Toothless was adamant. "Okay. A crazy, out-of-control dragon, blocking my way out." He managed to side-step the dragon and escape "Or not!"

Meanwhile, Hicca and Midnight finally woke up and headed to the forge. "Hey Gobber!" Hicca said cheerily to her mentor, who was happily playing the panpipes again.

"Hello Hicca. Seems like you and your dragon are on friendly terms again. Hiccup told me the issue." Gobber said.

"Yeah, well that was just a misunderstanding. By the way, have you seen Hiccup?"

"Yeah, he took Torch to the Academy."

Hicca and Midnights' eyes widened. "Wait, Torch? He's still here?"

Gobber raised his eyebrows at that. "What are you talking about? He never left." He then turned his back on the girls to clean his panpipe. "You should've seen it this morning. Toothless completely lost it-" But by the time Gobber turned around, he found both Hicca and Midnight running off to the Academy. He then shrugged and continued playing his panpipes.

Meanwhile at the Academy, Hiccup told Astrid, Raeda, Snotlout and Fishlegs what happened, while holding Torch.

"You did the right thing with Toothless. He'll snap out of it." Astrid said reassuringly.

"Ya, but what if he doesn't. Then you won't have a dragon to ride, and if you don't have a Dragon to ride then you can't be the leader of the Dragon Academy! HA!" Snotlout said in joy.

"Don't forget Snotlout, Hicca still has Midnight so she will be the sole leader till then. And from what I've seen, she's more than capable of doing it by herself." Astrid retorted.

"I agree." Raeda said.

"Hiccup! Hiccup!" Hicca called out as she and Midnight came into the Academy. "Hiccup, I have to tell you something. This is important!" But before she could continue, Ruffnut and Tuffnut came in with Barf and Belch, looking excited. "You guys would not believe what we just saw." Tuffnut said.

"Excuse me; we're having a power struggle." Snotlout said.

"We are?" Hicca asked confused.

"We're not having a power struggle." Hiccup said.

"The whole forest; ultimate destruction." Tuffnut said.

"It was beautiful. The whole thing was torched." Ruffnut said in awe.

"Torched? Show me." Hiccup said.

"I know who caused it." Hicca said.

"You do?" Hiccup asked, looking at his sister.

"I'll explain on the way. Bring Torch with you. By the way where is Toothless?" Hicca asked as she and her dragon looked around the Academy, realizing that the male Night Fury is nowhere to be seen.

"Uh, I kind of put him on a time-out in the Cove."

"What? Oh Hiccup." Hicca said exasperated. Why did she have to sleep in today? "Come with me on Midnight and I'll explain everything.

The eight teens then flew to the forest, where the Thorston twins said they saw the destruction.

"Like we said; ultimate destruction." Ruffnut said, admiring the mess of the forest.

"Torchs' mother?" Hiccup asked his sister once she finished her explanation.

"Yes, Torch is a baby dragon and the Typhoomerang that caused _this_ is his really protective, really enraged dragon who needs to get her hatchling back fast." Hicca said.

"That's what Toothless and Midnight were trying to tell us." Hiccup said, looking guilty, His best dragon friend was trying to warn him to protect him. And what did he do? Trapped the dragon in the Cove.

Hicca noticed her brothers' guilt and put her hand on his shoulder. "It's okay bro. Midnight had to dragged me to the forest to see Torchs' mother to finally realize the truth. There was no way you could've known."

Suddenly the mother Typhoomerang arrived, eyeing her baby that was being held by Fishlegs.

Fishlegs noticed the rage in the mother Typhoomerang and became scared "Whoever gets between that mother and this baby is gonna get **_fried!_**" He then gave Torch to Tuffnut, who started panicking.

"You take it!" He said, giving Torch to his sister.

"I don't want it!" Ruffnut said, giving Torch to Snotlout

"Just leave it, and let's get out of here." Snotlout said, passing Torch onto Hiccup.

"Uh-oh." Hiccup said as the mother dragon started to charge at him. He quickly put Torch down. "Now, uh, go home to your Mama." Torchs' mother started breathing fire. "RUN!" Hiccup shouted to the others. Everyone immediately scrambled back to their dragons, while Hiccup got on Midnight. "You guys go that way, Hicca and I will lead her back into the forest away from the village."

"Hiccup! Hicca!" Astrid called out, as the large Typhoomerang dragon started chasing the Haddock twins and the Night Fury.

"Be careful!" Raeda shouted.

Hiccup then turned back and saw Torch following them, leading to his mother chasing them "Oh, please stop following me!" he begged.

"What do we do now?" Hicca asked.

"Go to the Cove." Hiccup instructed. Hicca complied and steered Midnight to the Cove.

Reaching the Cove, Hiccup jumped off Midnight and shouted. "TOOTHLESS!"

A few seconds later, Hiccup and Toothless flew in the air, joining Hicca and Midnight. "Thanks bud. I'm so sorry. I should have listened to you. You too Midnight. I should have listened to you both." He said apologising to both dragons.

"Alright, how about we continue this later? We still have something to do." Hicca said, referring to the baby Typhoomerang and the mother Typhoomerang still chasing them.

Hiccup nodded "Right, Toothless evasive maneuvers."

"Midnight, let's shake them off."

Both dragons flew their riders out of the forest at high speed. Yet, the relentless mother Typhoomerang was still behind them.

"Oh, why won't she stop?" Hiccup groaned.

Hicca saw the reason why "Uh, Hiccup." She said, just as Torchs' head popped out from behind Hiccup.

"What the-? Torch? What are you doing? You need to be with your mother!" Hiccup exclaimed.

"What now?" Hicca asked as she saw the mother Typhoomerang gaining on them.

"I got an idea. Hicca, Midnight fly back, give us some space." Hiccup ordered. Hesitantly Hicca and Midnight complied, hoping he has a good plan. "Toothless we have to try something else. We'll use her size against her. Toothless, up!" Toothless followed and the mother dragon went after the boys since they were the ones who have her baby. "Now! Dive!" Toothless did so as well as the mother dragon. Just when they were seconds away from hitting the ground, Toothless pulled up. The mother dragon, however, wasn't fast enough and crashed to the ground.

Toothless and Hiccup landed on the ground, along with Hicca and Midnight. "I hope she's okay." Hiccup said as Torch got off Toothless and went to his mother.

"Me too." Hicca said.

Torch nudged his mother awake and the mother and baby reunited. They were then joined by Torchs' siblings.

"Aww! Cute! Torchs' baby siblings!" Hicca said smiling.

"Good job, guys. Everybody's back where they belong." Hiccup said as he got on Toothless. "Goodbye, Torch."

"Bye Torch!" Hicca said, waving to Torch.

"Let's go home, guys."

"I thought you'd never ask."

Later at the Haddock household, Stoick was cooking dinner while Gobber was playing on his panpipes. "Ah. I wrote this just for the occasion."

"We should have known you two were just trying to protect us. That's what you two do." Hiccup said.

"We need to learn to listen to you guys better in the future." Hicca said.

As an acceptance of their apologies, Toothless and Midnight regurgitated fish on their riders lap.

"And then you two do that." Hiccup said sighing.

"Yep." Hicca agreed, disgusted by the regurgitated fish.

**_Communication between dragon and rider goes both ways. Not only must the Dragon follow the Rider's lead, but the Rider must listen to the dragon as well. Because sometimes, what the dragon is trying to say is what you really need to hear._**


	5. Pirates From The Past

**A/N: Hey guys I'm back! Don't worry, I haven't decided to abandoned my story. I've been busy with school work mostly. I'll try to post my stories as soon as possible. For now, enjoy this surprise chapter. This is an original chapter which puts the spotlight onto Raeda. I hope you guys like it and let me know what you think. Sorry if Hiccups' voice-over part isn't good. It was a bit hard for me to come up with something. Also I am NOT pairing Raeda or Hicca with Fishlegs, Snotlout or Tuffnut. Nor am I going to do a Hiccup x Raeda. They will just be best friends. Please read and review**

**Disclaimer: I do not own How to train your dragon or any of it's franchise.**

**Chapter 5: Pirates From The Past**

**_Since we made peace between Vikings and dragons, everything changed. Vikings no longer raised their weapons against dragons and dragons no longer set fire to the village...on purpose at least._**

A flashback shows a dragon raid where Vikings were viciously fighting against dragons and vice versa. Now on the current day the dragons and Vikings are interacting with each other on friendlier terms.

_**New changes have been made since then.**_

In the air Hicca, Snotlout, Fishlegs, Astrid and the Thorston twins were all flying around the village on their dragons.

_**But sometimes old habits die hard.**_

At the Henderson household, Raeda finished getting ready and walked downstairs to get a quick breakfast and go outside. She went to the kitchen where her parents were.

"Fix your posture Raeda. Remember what I said about your walk?" Raedas' mom asked.

"I need to walk tall and proud." Raeda recounted. She grabbed a loaf of bread and made her way out when her father stopped her.

"Here, drink some water first." He said, holding out a mug for her to take. "It's important you stay hydrated." Raeda took the mug and drank the water. "And I hope you're still practicing those combat moves, Raeda. Just because there are no more dragon raids doesn't mean you can slack off on your training." He said.

"Don't worry dad, I am." Raeda said, although it was a lie. She actually spends most of her time flying with Sparkfire and drawing new landscapes she and her dragon come across. "I have to go; I'll see you guys later." She then flew off with Sparkfire.

Later on, Raeda and Sparkfire went to the forge, where Hiccup was working. However instead of sitting around and talking to Hiccup like she usually does, Raeda was actually working on a sword she made by herself.

"Important thing to remember when working in the forge; be mindful when you're have a metallic weapon over the fire. The last thing you need is the metal part to melt completely off the handle. Trust me, this is learned from experience." Hiccup informed Raeda. Toothless was laying down in a corner of the forge, waiting for his rider to finish up so that they could go out flying to join his mate.

"Got it." Raeda replied while putting the finishing touches on her sword.

Hiccup looked out the window and saw Sparkfire standing outside "What's up with Sparkfire." He asked, noticing that the purple Nadder was on high alert.

"Oh, I just put her outside to stand guard in case my parents come by." Raeda answered.

"So they have no clue that you're learning to craft from me and Hicca?" Hiccup asked, turning to the Henderson girl.

"No." Raeda answered.

"And they also still don't know about your secret desire to be an artist." Hiccup asked.

"No." Raeda repeated.

"Rae, I don't know why you're still hiding this. I thought you said your parents have been less strict on you." This is true. Ever since the battle that took place in the dragons' nest, Raedas' parents have been less strict on her and made her training schedule lighter so that she can have time to learn about training dragons and patrolling Berk whenever necessary. "It's true, but they still want me to be a shield maiden to carry on the familys' legacy. Besides, they still think art is useless."

"Useless?" Hiccup asked incredulously, he then picked up a beautifully made and detailed axe Raeda crafted earlier. "Rae, look at this. This is not useless. This is perfect! And that sword you're working on. Also perfect! And these are the first weapons you've ever made by yourself. Do you know what was the first weapon Hicca and I made by ourselves? Daggers and they were nowhere near as good as these."

"I'm not talking about this; I'm talking about making portraits, tapestries and sculptures. That's my main goal." Raeda explained. "That's what my parents think is useless."

"Show them your sketchbook. Let them see how good you are and they will let you be an artist. You remembered Hiccas' secret passion to be a healer. She was afraid to speak up about this because she was scared that people wouldn't accept it because of her previous reputation. But now things are different since she showed them her skills. People sometimes come to her if they have any burns or cuts to be healed. Do you know, dad asks her medical questions everyday to test her knowledge? He even started working on the designs for a new building to serve as an office for her when she becomes a healer."

"Healer is one thing and artist is another." Raeda pointed out.

Before Hiccup could argue any further, Sparkfire gave out a squawk, alerting her rider that her parents were coming. Raeda immediately took off her apron and took an arrow from her quiver. "Look, just drop it for now okay?" She whispered to Hiccup, before straightening up and twirling her arrow.

Hiccup sighed in defeat. As stubborn as he was, the only two people who could match up to his stubbornness are his sister and Raeda.

"Hey Mom! Hey Dad! What brings you two here?" Raeda asked as her parents came into the forge.

"Hello Raeda. We requested new weapons from Gobber earlier. We're here to get them." Helga answered.

"Gobber's not here, but you two can look around and see what you want." Hiccup offered.

Both Helga and Thaddeus looked around, inspecting the weapons carefully before they got their eyes set on an axe and a sword. Helga picked up the axe while Thaddeus picked up the sword. Raedas' eyes widened. Those weren't just any axe and sword, those were the same weapons she made by herself! She just hoped that neither of her parents would see the signature she put on each weapon to show it was her work.

Her parents tried out the weapons before turning to Hiccup. "This is absolutely perfect!" Thaddeus said.

"I agree. Gobber has really outdone himself this time." Helga said, admiring the axe.

Raeda answered before Hiccup could. "Yeah, he really has. He just finished making that, so you guys came at the perfect time." She then gave a look that Hiccup as if to say '_don't tell them'_. Hiccup sighed in defeat again and just nodded in agreement.

"We'll take these." Helga said. She and her husband then left the forge.

Sparkfire started nudging her rider with a pleading expression on her face. "Okay girl. We can go flying." Raeda said, knowing exactly what her dragon wanted. She took her quiver and got on Sparkfire and they flew off, leaving Hiccup and Toothless behind.

Later on, in the village, Hiccup and Hicca were walking around with their dragons. Hiccup was explaining to his sister what happened in the forge.

"I think you should talk to Rae about it, sis." Hiccup said once he finished telling her what happened. "Maybe she'll think twice if she heard it from someone who's experience a similar situation."

"I can try to convince her to talk to her parents about her future, but I can't make any guarantees she'll act on it. Remember, it took a battle against a gigantic dragon to finally have the courage to tell people my secret passion." She reminded him.

"Get every weapon sharpen and ready! I want the watchmen to stay on high alert!"

Recognizing that voice, the Haddock twins turned to see their father shouting out orders to some of the villagers as they rushed by, seeming to make preparations for something.

"I haven't preparations like this being made since our last dragon raid." Hicca commented as she saw catapults being prepared.

"Yeah, I wonder what's going on." Hiccup said. The two teens and their dragons then went to their dad to find out.

"Dad, what's going on here?" Hicca asked.

Stoick immediately turned to his children "Mulch and Bucket just came back from a fishing trip. They reported that they saw a pirate ship heading in our direction."

The twins' eyes widened at that. "Pirates? Heading here?" Hiccup asked.

"Maybe they're just passing by?" Hicca asked, hoping it was true.

"Well I'm not going to take a chance, especially not after last time." Stoick said. "We're preparing for a possible attack. I suggest you two and the other dragon riders do the same."

The twins nodded in agreement. "Right dad, we're on it." Hiccup said firmly

"Don't worry. Even if they attack us again, we have an element of surprise." Hicca said, referring to the dragons

The twins went and managed to get everyone, except Raeda, at the Academy to alert them about the pirates.

"Oh no, not pirates! One time encounter with them was more than enough!" Fishlegs whimpered, remembering the last time.

"I say we let them come and face the wrath of me and Hookfang." Snotlout said, flexing his arms.

"I say we blow their ship up." Tuffnut said.

"Yeah, we can really smash it to pieces." Ruffnut said, agreeing with her brothers' plan.

"Hang on guys. For all we know, they're just passing by. It would make things worse for if we just attacked them for no reason." Hicca said.

"Last time, we all thought they were just passing by." Fishlegs pointed out.

"Have you told Raeda yet?" Astrid asked the Haddock twins.

"Not yet, we haven't really figured out how to tell her." Hiccup answered.

"Tell who what?" Raeda asked as she and Sparkfire flew inside the Academy.

"Oh, h-hi Rae." Hicca said nervously.

"You guys have any idea what's going on in the village?" Raeda asked. "It looks like everyone's preparing for a battle."

Hicca decided to break the news to her "Uh, yeah. Well...you see...the thing is...well we don't know for sure...but there's good chance that-"

Snotlout then decided to break the news for her "Mulch and Bucket saw a pirate ship heading our way and everyone's getting ready to fight them." He said bluntly. Hicca, Hiccup and Astrid glared at him. "What? By the time Hicca will tell her what's happening; the pirates would already be here by now." Snotlout said defensively.

The other teens then turned to Raeda, concerned by how she would react to that. Raeda only held a blank expression as a memory came back to her.

_Flashback_

_Seven years ago, Vikings and pirates were at war with each other as the pirates have invaded Berk to take over the Island. The Berk warriors fought bravely against the pirates as the rest of the villagers hid to safety. All that is, except for an eight-year old raven haired girl who came was walking back home from the forest. When she came to the village, she was shock to see it has turned into a complete warzone._

_She tried to look for her parents but then her vision turned black! She became scared as she felt someone restraining her!_

_"__Look what I found. What do we do with her?" A man she couldn't recognise asked._

_"__Take her back to the ship. We could use her as a hostage." Another man answered._

_She started panicking as she felt herself being dragged away. She tried kicking desperately, begging the man that was restraining her to let her go, but it was in vain. When she felt the waves crashed on some rocks, she realized that she was at the docks. The pirate lifted the girl, when suddenly he was attacked from behind!_

_"__Let the girl go!" A Berkian warrior shouted._

_He and the pirate then went into a duel, while another Berkian went to the small girl, who was quivering with fear. The warrior took the bag that was covering her head and looked at the girl with concern._

_"__Raeda, sweetie, are you okay? You're not hurt are you?"_

_Raeda looked up and saw Phlegma the Fierce in front of her. She wanted to answer that question but she couldn't. She was too terrified to even think clearly._

_Phlegma then decided to take her to safety, her eyes wide alert as she kept the small child close to her._

_That was the first and, hopefully for Raeda, the last time she ever encountered pirates. _

The Berkians won and the pirates were forced to retreat. When it finally sunk in to Raeda what nearly happened, she was completely traumatized. She stayed locked up in her room for a month and when she finally did, she couldn't even look at the forest and she always felt like a pirate was just going to jump out of nowhere and kidnap her. Even now she still sometimes has nightmares.

"Raeda!" A voice brought her mind back to the current situation. She looked and saw the other teens and dragons looking at her with concern.

It was Hicca who spoke up "Rae, look. There is going to be a safe place set up for all those not fighting the battle. Hypothetically speaking, if the pirates do come, you can go and join those people. We will understand if you do."

"Yeah, you don't have to worry about it. We can handle them. Besides for all we know, this time the pirates might actually be passing by Berk." Hiccup added.

Raeda shook her head. "Thanks for the concern guys, but I'm fine. What happened was a long time back. It's a hazy memory to me now. If we get invaded I don't want to hide. I want to defend Berk. This is what I was trained to do."

"Are you sure Rae? No one is forcing you to do this you know." Astrid said.

"I am sure. Whatever plan you guys have made, I'm in." Raeda said with confidence.

"Hmmm. That was easier than I thought." Tuffnut said, believing Raeda. Ruffnut nodded in agreement.

Hiccup and Hicca, however, had their doubts. Hiccup then spoke up. "Well, we were planning on splitting up and scouting over Berk to see if the pirate ship is showing signs of going to Berk."

"Okay then what are we waiting for. Let's do it. The sooner we can go look for them, the sooner we will have something to report to the chief." Raeda declared.

The Haddock twins exchanged a look before Hiccup spoke up again. "Okay, we're going to split up in teams of two. Fishlegs and Snotlout, you guys go head to the south of Berk. Ruffnut and Tuffnut, you two check the east. Raeda and Astrid, you go to the west and Hicca and I will check the North."

"As soon as any of you see a pirate ship anywhere near Berk, you immediately send a fire signal in the sky and head to the village." Hicca ordered.

"Wait! Why do I have to be paired with Fishface? I should be with Astrid to protect her from the pirates." Snotlout complained.

"Are you saying I'm too weak to defend myself?!" Astrid asked, holding her axe up at Snotlout, daring him to say yes.

Snotlout quickly back-pedalled "What? Who me? Saying you're weak? I don't remember implying that ever. You know what? Actually Fishlegs is a good partner to have. Good choice made." He and Hookfang immediately flew off, followed by Fishlegs and Meatlug.

The rest of the teens got on their dragons and flew off to their assigned destination, only Ruffnut and Tuffnut were flying North instead of east. "Guys, you're supposed to go the east of Berk!" Hiccup called to the Thorston twins.

"Right! The east..." Ruffnut said with uncertainty as she and her brother shared a confused look.

Hicca rolled her eyes. "It's that way." She said, pointing to the east.

"We knew that!" Tuffnut said as the Thorston twins flew off in the right direction this time.

At the North Hiccup, Hicca, Toothless and Midnight all surveyed the ocean, looking for any signs of the pirate ship.

"So far so good. Not a pirate ship in sight," Hiccup noted. Hicca noted that her brothers' mind was somewhere else.

"What's wrong bro?"

"It's Rae. She claims to have gotten over her fear of pirates, but you know as well as I do how easy it is for her to put on her brave, tough girl mask."

Hicca contemplated that before answering. "Yeah, but who knows, maybe facing pirates again is what she needs to completely move on from her fear."

"You know very well about post-traumatic stress disorder. Are you one-hundred percent confident that Raeda could handle another encounter with the pirates and not have a panic attack or something."

His sister pondered over that for a minute. Did she fully believe that? "You know, actually, I'm not completely sure. But I think we're underestimating Raeda. A lot has changed about her from then. She's learned combat skills from her parents, she is a skilled archer and she has Sparkfire. Plus there is no way the rest of us would let her get taken away without a fight, she knows that."

Hiccup couldn't help but agree to that. "Good point. Still, hopefully there will be no pirate attack on Berk in the future."

So far Snotlout and Fishlegs, Ruffnut and Tuffnut and Hiccup and Hicca saw no sign of the pirates. The same was about to be said for Astrid and Raeda, when Stormfly saw something from the corner of her eye and alerted the girls. Astrid and Raeda both looked to see where the blue Nadder was indicating to and their eyes widened at what they saw. A ship was brought to a secluded area of Berk and it wasn't a ship that either of the girls recognised.

Quickly, they flew there dragons far away from the spot and landed, hoping that they weren't seen. They made Stormfly and Sparkfire stay where they were, much to the two Nadders dismay, and quietly made their way to place they just saw, wanting to confirm their suspicions before they did anything.

"You know, you can stay with Sparkfire and Stormfly if you want." Astrid said to Raeda.

Raeda sighed. "I told you, I'm fine. I can handle this."

Astrid wasn't so sure about that, though. Years of training alongside the Henderson girl made Astrid learn that whenever there is a possibility of confronting a threat or an enemy, Raeda always has her bow and arrow ready to fire whenever she needs to. Right now, she hasn't even touched her arrows or her bow. But Astrid kept quiet, knowing she couldn't convince Raeda to stay with the dragons and hoping that their suspicions wouldn't be confirmed.

The two girls quickly and quietly came to the area where they saw the ship and hid behind a boulder. They peered over the boulder, watching as the men on the ship were taking out weapons.

"Keep moving lads! No need to delay Berks' surprise invasion anytime soon." Shouted one of the men, the leader most probably.

The girls' eyes widened at this.

"We need to signal the others and get ready for a battle." Astrid said. When she turned to Raeda, she noticed that the raven-haired girl seemed to be in deep thought. "Rae, are you listening?"

Before Raeda could reply, both girls were suddenly grabbed from behind!

"Well, well, look what we have here." Said one of the pirates that grabbed Raeda.

The two pirates dragged both girls out from the boulder. "Captain! Look what we've found." Shouted the man that was holding Astrid.

The captain and the other crew members turned around and saw the girls. "Well hello there ladies. Don't either of you know that it's rude to spy on other people, _especially _pirates?" The captain sneered at them. Neither of the girls responded as Astrid glared at the pirate and Raeda kept a blank expression. "What? Not in the mood for talking either of you? Well, never mind." The captain said, unfazed by the lack of fear Raeda and Astrid showed him. He then turned to the men holding them. "Take them both to the cells. We're in need of new prisoners."

The men started dragging the girls, but stopped when they heard two roars from the distance. Suddenly two familiar Nadders, sensing that their riders were in danger, attacked the pirates. The pirates started to panic, not expecting this at all, and the men who were holding Astrid and Raeda let the girls go to get their weapons ready. Stormfly blasted fire at the men while Sparkfire shot spines at them. The pirates ran for cover, giving the two Nadders the perfect opportunity to get their riders to safety. Raeda and Astrid quickly jumped on their dragons and flew away and Astrid had Stormfly fire in the sky, alerting the other dragon riders of the imminent danger.

"Hiccup look!" Hicca pointed to the sky.

Hiccups' eyes widened when he saw the signal. "Let's go."

Breathing a sigh of relief, Astrid spoke up. "So much for the pirates passing by. I hope everyone is ready." She turned to Raeda and noticed that the Henderson girl still had a blank expression on her face. "Raeda?"

Raeda didn't respond and simply turned Sparkfire to land in the forest. Astrid and Stormfly followed them.

Both girls got off their dragons and Astrid turned to Raeda, concerned about her friend who's definitely experiencing some déjà vu. "Raeda?"

"They're back." Raeda simply said.

"What?" Astrid asked, confused.

"They're the same pirates who invaded us last time. They came back." Raeda said, trying desperately to keep herself together. "I should know that because I remember everything that happened last time. I remembered walking down the forest to everything suddenly becoming black, I remembered being dragged to the ship and being close to never seeing Berk again and the voices. There's no doubt that I remember the voices. Those voices have been haunting me for years." Unable to take it anymore, Raeda finally broke down. "I thought that maybe, just maybe, I could move on from that incident. That I might be able to handle this. But the truth is I've been lying to myself. I can't handle this at all." She cried.

She sat down, holding her head in her hands as she cried. Astrid was at a loss of what to do. She had never seen Raeda cry ever and had no idea how to comfort her after the whole ordeal. She was now wishing that Hiccup or Hicca was here to help. They would know what to say. Sparkfire licked her riders' cheek, trying to comfort her the best way that she could do.

What the two girls did not know was that some of the pirates went ahead and had attacked Berk. Luckily, the warriors were prepared and have taken the rest of the villagers to safety. Once again, the Berkian warriors fought against the pirates to protect their village.

Helga and Thaddeus fought against six pirates using the new weapons they bought. Despite the number, both the Hendersons managed to overpower the six pirates.

"Where did you two get those weapons?" Gobber, who was nearby, asked after fighting off a pirate with his prosthetic hammer.

"Don't tell me you can't recognise your own work, Gobber." Thaddeus replied.

"My own work? I wish I could craft like that. I didn't make either of them." Gobber said before he went to duel with another pirate.

That made both the Henderson adults confused.

"If Gobber didn't make these then who did?" Helga asked.

Thaddeus then saw the bottom of the sword handle and became surprised. "Helga look!" He showed his wife what he discovered. Helga shared the same surprise as her husband and checked the bottom of her axe handle. However. Before either one of them could say anything, a battle roar brought them back to the current situation and they went back to fighting the invaders.

Roars from the sky brought the pirates attention as they looked up and saw six of the eight Berk Dragon Academy riders joining the battle. As these pirates weren't there when Astrid and Raeda were captured, they were caught off guard by what they saw as they ran to take cover from the fire-breathing dragons.

"Take that pirates! Snotlout! Snotlout! Oi! Oi! Oi!" Snotlout yelled as flew by with Hookfang creating a line of fire.

The Thorston twins were having the time of their lives having Barf and Belch causing explosions everywhere.

"Wow everything is chaotic here!" Ruffnut yelled in excitement.

"I know it's amazing!" Tuffnut shouted as their Zippleback had fired another explosion.

It looked like the pirates were losing as they ran to avoid getting burnt by the dragons giving the Berk warriors the advantage, but then the group of pirates that were left at the ship suddenly joined the battle. After the experience from Raeda, Astrid and their Nadders, these pirates were prepared and immediately threw bolas at the dragons. Now it was the dragons turn to be caught off guard as they all got captured. Even Toothless and Midnight, two of the fastest dragons, got caught in the bolas. This stunned the Vikings long enough for the pirates to fight back, taking advantage of the moment of distraction.

Meanwhile, in the forest, Astrid, Raeda and their dragons heard the commotion and quickly made their way to the village to see that the pirates were starting to win and their friends were getting tied up along with their dragons.

"Oh no! This is bad! We have to do something!" Astrid exclaimed as she watched the pirates were defeating and tying up the Vikings.

Raeda, however, was not over her panic attack. 'This is the exact same spot where I got captured. They're going to capture us again!' She thought as her knees went weak.

Both girls and dragons watched as the pirates claimed their victory, herding the Berkians to the Academy to lock them up in the cages there.

Astrid then turned to Raeda. "Rae! Come on get up! We have to save them. We're the only ones left."

Raeda desperately wanted to say 'okay' and help save Berk but she couldn't "I can't Astrid. I'm just not strong enough to face them again." She said, trying to hold back her tears. Sparkfire again tried to comfort her rider.

"Stop that! Do you remember who you are? You are Raeda Henderson. The same girl who boldly stood up for Hiccup and Hicca when they were the village outcasts. The same girl who I envied because she has the skills that could match up with mine and is the one person who can intimidate me. Yes, you were traumatized by the pirates, but you _are_ strong enough to take them on and this time you're not alone. You have Sparkfire and me and Stormfly and the rest of Berk who will be there for you once we free them from the pirates and we won't be able to do that if we're sitting here moping about the past!"

Once Raeda let Astrids' words sink in, she stood up and took a deep breath. Astrid was right. She needed to face her fears sooner or later if she wants to rescue her parents and friends. They needed a plan.

Meanwhile at the Academy, the pirates had the Berkians kept in the cages that were once for the dragons while the dragons, who reached their shot limits, were all tied up and muzzled in the centre of the Academy, while Hiccup, Hicca, Snotlout, Fishlegs, Ruffnut and Tuffnut were all tied up standing with them.

"Where are Raeda and Astrid?" Hicca whispered to her brother.

"I don't know but hopefully they have Sparkfire and Stormfly with them." Hiccup whispered back.

The leader of the pirates walked around the dragons observing them as they struggled to break out the their bounds. "Riding dragons, eh? Now I've seen everything. Just think of what we could do if _we _flew dragons." He said to crews, who all agreed to him. He then turned to the teens. "Since you six were the only ones who were riding them, you guys are going to show us how to fly them."

"Yeah right!" Snotlout said defiantly.

"I'll pass!" Tuffnut said nonchalantly.

"No deal." Hicca said firmly.

Even Fishlegs, who was still frightened by the pirates, managed a glare in their direction after seeing Meatlug all tied up.

This did not seem to faze the captain. He continued speaking. "Alright then, looks like we'll have to do this the hard way." He gave a signal to his crew, who in reply got their swords ready. They made their way to the cages when suddenly, a line of spikes shot out from the sky, getting their attention.

"Hey you stupid pirates! You forgot one." The girl riding a Nadder yelled from the entrance of the Academy.

"Astrid!" Hiccup exclaimed. What is she up to?

"Don't just stand there fools! Get her!" The captain shouted to his crew. "Guard the prisoners!" He called behind his shoulder to two of the pirates.

The rest of the pirates left the Academy and Hiccup started struggling against his bonds. "Come on, come one." He muttered, wanting to get on Toothless and go after the pirates before they could get Astrid.

Unbeknownst to anyone in the Academy, there was a figure standing outside the Academy waiting for the right moment to enter. As soon as most of the pirates left the Academy to go after Astrid and Stormfly, the figure silently crept into the Academy.

Suddenly, one of the pirates yelped in pain as he got to his knees. The other pirate went to see what happened while the prisoners looked on with confusion.

"What the-?" The other pirate asked as he saw what had stabbed the back of his fellow pirates' right leg.

"Is that an arrow?" Hicca asked her brother. There was only one person they knew who could be behind that.

Suddenly the pirate who didn't get hit looked up at the source and found Raeda standing there, with her bow and arrows ready. He got up and was about to attack her when a couple of spikes were shot from his left and pinned him to the wall.

"Good job girl!" Raeda said to Sparkfire, who squawked happily in reply. She and Sparkfire then ran to the cages.

"Raeda, you're alright!" Helga said in relief.

"Thank goodness!" Her husband said, equally happy that his daughter was okay.

Raeda smiled at them before turning to her dragon "Fire!" she commanded her dragon, pointing to the metal lock. Sparkfire blasted the lock, causing it to melt, opening the cages. Raeda then went to her friends and using the sharp metal part from her arrow, cut through the ropes, freeing the riders and the dragons.

"Rae, I am so glad to see you." Hicca said as her best friend cut through her ropes.

"Yeah perfect timing." Hiccup commented, smiling as he saw how Raeda faced the two pirates without flinching.

Outside the Academy, the pirates, unaware that the prisoners escaped, had Astrid and Stormfly surrounded. Both of them were on the ground as Astrid was calmly on her dragons' saddle while Stormfly growled at the pirates, daring them to come and attack her and her rider. The pirates started to close in when they were suddenly stopped by a plasma blast.

"Hey there! Remember us?" Hiccup shouted as he and the other dragon riders started attacking from the sky, while the rest of the Berkian warriors, led by Stoick charged after the pirates. Caught off guard once again, the pirates fought a losing battle as they were soon defeated by the warriors and the dragon riders.

At sunset, the eight dragon riders brought the last of the tied up pirates to a deserted island far, far away from Berk.

Seven of the dragon riders left as soon as they dropped the pirates. Raeda was about to leave as well, but after looking at the pirates, she then got off Sparkfire and approached them with her dragon right by her side on full alert in case the pirates try to do something.

"This is a warning. Next time you guys attacked Berk again. You. Will. Be. Ashes." She threatened in a low-menacing voice. That combine with her cold glare and her dragon growling in agreement made the pirates shudder in fear. Satisfied, she got on Sparkfire and they joined their friends.

Later that night in the Henderson household, Sparkfire was fast asleep after the excitement for the day and Raeda was just about to get ready for bed when her parents stopped her.

"Rae, do you have a minute?" Thaddeus asked.

"Yeah, sure. What's up?" Raeda responded walking to her parents.

"We just wanted to tell you that we are so proud of how you and Astrid handled those pirates today." Her mom said.

"Your mother is right, if it wasn't for you two and your dragons, Berk would have been facing some tragedies right now." Her father added.

Raedas' eyes lit up and she smiled "Thanks mom, thanks dad." A thought then came to her. She took a deep breath before speaking up again. "Listen; there is something I need to tell you two." Her parents looked at her, waiting for her to tell them. "Everything that has happened until now, flying dragons, fighting an enormous dragon and defeating pirates, it showed me what I am capable of. It showed me that I can be a pretty good shield maiden if I put my mind to it." She paused for a minute, before speaking up again. "But that's not what I want to do in the future. Being a shield maiden is not my calling, being an artist is. If you guys could just take a minute to see some of my work, then you would definitely be considering it."

Her parents smiled, knowing that this was coming.

"We don't need to see your work." Thaddeus said.

"Because we already know." Helga informed her.

That made Raeda surprised. "You do?"

Her parents then brought out the new weapons "Should have known Gobber could not pull off something as artistic as this." Her mother said as she and her husband showed the bottom of the handles of both the weapons, revealing the initials RH engraved on them.

Thaddeus then spoke up "Look Rae, I know that these past years your mother and I have been pushing you to reach perfection. It wasn't just carry out the family name. In fact, that was a small reason to why we trained you so much. It's just that the night you nearly got taken by the pirates was the most terrifying night of our lives. It was then when we realised how vulnerable you were and how easy it was for someone to take you when we're not there to protect you. We've lost so many of our family already; we didn't want to lose you too."

"But today, you've shown us two things. One, you showed us how capable you are in protecting yourself with that dragon of yours by your side and two; you should us you're amazing artistic abilities. Hiccup told us that these weapons are the first ever weapons you made by yourself. Rae, these are amazing! Neither Thaddeus, nor I could do something like this." Helga commented, admiring her axe.

"We talked to Gobber a while back and he said that there is another position open as a blacksmiths' apprentice. Would you be interested?" Raedas' father asked rhetorically.

Raedas' eyes widened at that. "Yes! I would love that! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" She said excitedly, hugging both her parents who returned the hug.

_**With a new era on Berk, a lot of people have changed.**_

The next day, Raeda was working happily at the forge with Hicca and Hiccup, constructing a new sword for a customer.

_**Some have made the change instantly and others with the support of families and friends slowly came to that change.**_

**A/N: Sorry if the fight scenes between the Berkians and the pirates are a bit short. I wasn't sure how to write that out.**


	6. In Dragons We Trust

**A/N: I'm back! I am so sorry for the delay in updating. I've been so busy with school work and tests that I barely have time to use my laptop. I hope this chapter makes up for it. Enjoy! Please read and review.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own 'How to train your dragon' and its' franchise.**

**Chapter 6: In Dragons We Trust**

**_As you fly through life it's always good to know who you can trust... and who you can't._**

Hiccup and Hicca are falling from the sky. Before either one of them could hit the ocean, Toothless and Midnight swooped in and caught their riders.

"Good job girl!" Hicca complimented, petting her dragon.

"Nice catch, bud. A little close..." Hiccup commented.

**_Hicca and I know we can always count on Midnight and Toothless. And it's important for them to know... that no matter what... they can count on us._**

Hiccup then turned to Fishlegs. "It's your turn. Jump!"

"I don't want to jump! I-!" Fishlegs said nervously.

"You have to believe she's gonna catch you! It's a trust exercise." Hiccup informed him.

"Remember when riding and training dragons, it's all about trust." Hicca added.

"I like to do my trusting on the ground, thank you, very much!" Fishlegs stated.

"Like this, chicken-legs." Snotlout sneered. He then jumped off Hookfang "WHOO-HOO-HOO-HOO!"

But the rest of the teens noticed that Hookfang wasn't really flying to get his rider. In fact, it didn't look like Hookfang even noticed that Snotlout has jumped off.

"So...should we mention something to Hookfang?" Tuffnut asked.

"Let me sleep on it." Ruffnut replied.

"Hookfang! Get him!" Astrid commanded.

"Hurry!" Raeda shouted.

The Monstrous Nightmare then looked down and finally noticed his rider was falling. "Not feeling the trust!" Snotlout shouted. Hookfang finally snapped out of it and dived down to rescue his rider. The dragon managed to catch the boy but there was no time to steer away from a nearby house. "AH! COMIN' IN TOO HOT! AHH!" They then crashed through the roof.

"Oh, no." Raeda said fearfully as she realized exactly whose roof Snotlout and Hookfang crashed into.

Unfortunately, Snotlout and Hookfang found out as well. "Mildew!" He then jumped on Hookfang and flew away, crashing through the roof again!

"You'll pay for this!" Mildew warned.

"Oh, something tells me we're gonna hear about this..." Hiccup said, knowing very well what's going to happen next.

"Yep." Hicca agreed, she then turned to Snotlout and Hookfang who have joined the others. "Couldn't you two have at least flown out of the hole you came from instead of making a new one on Mildews' roof?" Snotlout just shrugged in reply.

Later that evening, just as the twins predicted, their father has been informed of the incident and has set down some shingles, nails and hammers on the table

"Shingles again? Didn't we have roofing material for dinner last night?" Hiccup asked, trying to lighten the mood.

"I'm more in the mood for some soup." Hicca added. However, the stern look from their father has told the twins that he is not buying it so Hiccup decided to get to the point.

"It was an accident, Dad. I'm sure Mildew's making it sound worse than it is."

"He always does that." Hicca pointed out.

"A dragon and a huge, obnoxious boy crashed through his roof... twice!" Stoick stated.

"Yeah, that's pretty much it." Hicca said, rubbing her arm.

"Well, sure, it sounds bad if you're gonna... stick to the facts." Hiccup tried. His sister gave him a look that said _'Really' _and he gave a shrug in reply.

"Of all the houses on the island, a Dragon had to crash through Mildew's! You know he hates Dragons more than anyone else!" Stoick said.

"I know...You might wanna talk to him about his attitude." Hiccup said.

"Or maybe move his house further away from Berk." Hicca said before muttering in a low voice. "Like on another island."

"Listen to me, you two. I gave both of you the responsibility of training those dragons. Everyone knows that! All eyes are upon you two. Whatever those beasts do reflects on both of you. And whatever either of you do reflects on me."

"We're sorry, Dad. You're right."

"We're really sorry dad."

"You two and your friends are gonna go back to Mildew's and fix that roof. Without your dragons!" Stoick declared.

"Got a break there, bud." Hiccup said to Toothless.

"Could be worse." Hicca agreed. The twins started walking towards their rooms when their dad stopped them.

"Ah! Not so fast! Aren't you two forgetting something? It's boot night!" He then handed each twin a boot "They need to be aired out."

The twins cringed at the smell. "UGH! I think it's going to take more than air." Hiccup commented.

"I think I'm going to faint." Hicca said.

The twins went outside to put the boots out and saw that the other teens were doing the same.

"Uck. I hate boot night!" Fishlegs complained as he put his dads' boots outside.

As soon as Raeda put her dads' boots to the ground, she let out a breath she was holding. "I need to pour perfume in those boots." She muttered, walking back inside her house.

Ruffnut and Tuffnut, like the Haddock twins, held one boot each. Ruffnut then shoved the boot she was holding into her brothers' face. "Why is his left foot always so much smellier than his right?" Tuffnut wondered.

"Oh, no..." Snotlout mumbled, trying desperately not to throw up as he set his fathers' boots on the ground.

The next day, however, the villagers were in for a surprise.

"Where are my boots?" Stoick asked. He then looked at the other villagers and noticed their bare feet. "Where are _your_ boots?"

"They've all been stolen! Every last one!" Gobber announced.

"Oh! _That_ explains why me feet are so cold." Bucket said.

"Who could have done such a thing?" Mulch asked.

"All I know is that they left a mighty big footprint." Mildew said as he pointed to a footprint in the ground.

Fishlegs looked at the footprint "Oh! Those are Zippleback tracks. You can tell by the half-moon shaped arches. That's Dragon 101 guys, I don't gotta fill you in on that."

"So, a Dragon walked through here - a Zippleback, according to my friend, Fishlegs. But that doesn't mean he took everyone's boots." Hiccup said.

"Yeah, lot's of dragons walk around the village." Hicca added.

Mildew wasn't buying it "Well, there's just one way to find out. Follow the footprints."

Everyone did just that and the footprints lead them to the Academy where they found all the boots gathered in a pile with a Zippleback sleeping on top of it.

"So there's a bunch of boots piled around a Zippleback. That doesn't mean-" Hiccup tried to say before his dad showed him a boot with bite marks on it. He looked at his sister, who gave him a look that told him to back-pedal. "Okay, fine, he took the boots."

This announcement brought a series of complaints from the villagers.

"How are we supposed to do any work in this weather without our boots?"

"This is outrageous!"

"Now, how long before something's done about these creatures, Stoick? How much more can we stand?!" Mildew protested.

Gobber decided to put an end to this "Listen to yourselves. 'My feet are cold!' You're Vikings! Everything is cold! I'll fix your boots for yeh. You'll be back to work in no time."

"You all heard Gobber. You'll be getting your boots back as good as new." Stoick said.

"That's it? No consequence for these Dragons?" Mildew asked in disbelief.

"They took our boots, Mildew. The world isn't coming to an end!" Stoick said.

"Oh, don't be so sure. Dragon's are wild beasts. There's no telling what else they'll do behind our sleeping backs." Mildew warned.

"We are working to train them!" Hicca protested.

"They don't destroy things on purpose!" Hiccup added.

"Bah!" Mildew said, dismissing their arguments.

Hiccup then thought of something "But you do have a point, Mildew."

"Uh-whuh?" Mildew asked confused.

"Hiccup are you feeling okay?" Hicca asked as she tried to check her brothers' temperature.

"They are wild animals. And they need us to keep an eye on them. And rest assured we will do just that!" Hiccup announced to everyone. His sister fake cough to get his attention and she gestured to the Zippleback, now waking up on the pile of boots "Will you get out of there?!" Hiccup shouted at the Zippleback.

Later on Hiccup and Hicca gathered the other teens and discussed the new plan.

"We're going on night patrol." Hiccup announced.

"Night patrol! I love it!" Tuffnut said excitedly, before he got confused "What is it?"

"Really?" Hicca asked, shaking her head.

"It's where we patrol... at night. To keep an eye on the Dragons. Make sure they don't get blamed for anything else." Hiccup explained.

"Um, have you cleared this with our parents? Because some of us might not be allowed out after a certain hour." Fishlegs said nervously.

"Not allowed? Or _afraaaaid?_" Snotlout taunted.

"Hey! Things happen after dark." Fishlegs said defensively.

"Guys! We have to do this. You heard Mildew; he wants the Dragons banished." Hiccup reminded them.

"We don't need to give him any more reasons to have them banished." Hicca said.

"Permission to shoot first and ask questions later?" Ruffnut requested.

"Permission to skip the question?" Tuffnut added.

"We're just patrolling! No one is shooting anyone!" Hiccup said.

"I have a question. What's fun about that?!" Tuffnut asked.

"It's not supposed to be fun. It's a 'Hiccup and Hicca' idea." Astrid answered.

"These ideas are crazy and dangerous most of the time, but never fun." Raeda added.

"Exactly." Hiccup said before he and his sister realized what the two girls just said "What?"

"Hey!"

At night the teens started their first night patrol. Astrid, as part of her assignment on the night patrol, knocked on the door of one of the houses.

"Hello, sir!" Astrid said before she realized who was at the door. "Ah, umm, ah-ma'am. My name is Astrid, and I'm with the Dragon United Monitoring Brigade.

"Dumb?" The woman asked, reading Astrids' sash.

"Yes." Astrid sighed. Why she went along with the name for the night patrol was beyond her. At least Raedas' designs made the sash look pretty. "That is correct. Not my idea... But it is easy to remember. If you have any Dragon-related problems, contact us. Just cup a hand on either side of your mouth and at the top of your lungs yell..." She was cut off when the woman slammed the door on her face "Dumb."

Snotlout and Hookfang were working on their patrol when something caught the eyes of the Jorgenson boy. "Halt! Who goes there?!"

"Take a wild guess." Gobber replied sarcastically. Years of hanging out with the Haddock twins gave him good practice.

Snotlout huffed and crossed his arms "I don't think I like your attitude."

"Right back at yeh." Gobber retorted.

"Yeah... but I'm the one with the sash." Snotlout said, gesturing proudly to the well-designed sash. Clearly he didn't see the problem with the name.

"Let me take a closer look at that." Gobber said, looking at the sash. "Dumb'? Well, that suits you."

"Okay, I think we're done here." Snotlout said dismissing the blacksmith. He turned to his dragon and saw that the Monstrous Nightmare is missing! Starting to panic, Snotlout went to look for Hookfang.

Meanwhile, at Fishlegs' post, the nervous Ingerman boy was patrolling the area when he suddenly heard a noise. "Oh! What was that?" A louder noise caused him to run away screaming. After he left, a figure emerged from the shadows, revealing to be-

"Whoa..." Tuffnut said

"Whoa." Ruffnut repeated.

"Did you see me scare him?" They said in unison. This caused yet another argument.

"No, I scared him!"

"No, I scared him!"

"No me!"

"No, no, no!"

"Hey! Ugh!"

"It was me! I did it!"

"Clearly me!"

Meanwhile Hiccup, Toothless, Hicca and Midnight were on sky patrol.

"Status report?" Hiccup requested from his sister as she and Midnight flew over to the boys.

"All peaceful in the Northern and Western side of Berk. No rogue dragon has been spotted." Hicca stated.

Hiccup was satisfied with that "Well, Mildew will be happy to know what dragons do at night: they sleep, like everyone else."

"Something we should be doing right now." Hicca commented, while yawning.

What both of them didn't know was that they were in for a surprise tomorrow.

The next morning, all the villagers came to the Great Hall for breakfast as usual. Walking inside, everyones' jaws dropped when they saw that the inside of the Great Hall was completely destroyed! No one said anything until a scream broke the silence.

"Raeda?" Hicca asked, looking towards the source of the scream.

The raven-haired girl just stood there with her deep blue eyes wide and her hands covering her mouth. She slowly lifted her hand and pointed to what she was looking at. "My-my tapestry." She whispered. The others look and saw what has once been a beautiful and detailed tapestry of Berk during the sunset made by Raeda, was now slashed and ruined with the image of Berk barely recognisable "It took me eight months to finish that!" Hicca went to comfort her best human friend, knowing how much her artwork means to her.

"Who could have done such a thing?" Stoick wondered, surveying the destroyed area.

"Oh, it looks like a dragon to me!" Fishlegs commented.

"We don't know for sure, Fishlegs..." Hiccup said, hoping that the Ingerman boy would take the hint.

Unfortunately for Hiccup and the other teens, Fishlegs didn't "Sure, we do. Look at these claw marks. It was obviously a Monstrous Nightmare. The spacing of the talons is dead on."

"Once again, thank you, Fishlegs!" Hiccup said sarcastically.

"That's really helpful at the moment." Hicca added with equal sarcasm.

"Oh, stop, it's just basic stuff." Fishlegs said, not getting the sarcasm either.

"But how could this happen? We had every dragon accounted for at all times! Right, guys?" Astrid asked, turning to the other teens

The rest of the teens nodded their heads except for Snotlout, who was starting to look nervous. "When you say, 'at all times,' and 'every Dragon', what exactly do you mean?"

Putting two and two together, Hiccup sighed and turned to his cousin while his sister crossed her arms "Okay, what happened, Snotlout?"

"Well, I was detaining a suspect who wasn't showing sufficient respect to the sash." Snotlout explained while glaring at the said suspect.

"I think I showed sufficient respect to a sash that says 'dumb'." Gobber retorted.

"We've got to change that name." Astrid commented.

"You should let me be the one to decide on the names, bro." Hicca said to her brother, who offered no retort as he realised the 'DUMB' might not have been the best name.

Snotlout continued with his explanations "Anyways, as I was questioning said suspect, Hookfang may have-and I'm not saying he did-but it is possible he wandered off for a few..."

"Seconds?" Ruffnut guessed.

"Minutes?" Tuffnut tried

"Hours." Snotlout admitted.

"Oh, that's way longer than minutes." Tuffnut commented.

Raeda silently listened to Snotlouts' explanation while looking at her torn tapestry. When he was finished, she took her eyes off the tapestry and turned to him. "Snotlout." She said calmly.

"Yes?" Snotlout asked, unaware of what was about to come.

Raedas' expression suddenly turned from calm to angry "I'm going to kill you!" she shouted as she charged up to Snotlout, who quickly hid behind Fishlegs in fear. Fishlegs tried to move away, not wanting to be in the path of Raedas' anger. Luckily for both boys, Astrid and Hicca held Raeda back, trying to calm her down.

Mildew decided to make an appearance "Oh, no, it's true! The Great Hall! So many memories. My three weddings, their three funerals. Oh, the funerals!" He said dramatically.

"A dragon must have gone on a rampage." Gobber explained. He then turned to the chief "I hate to say it, Stoick, but you're going to have to-"

"I know what has to be done, Gobber." Stoick simply said.

"So do I!" Mildew said.

"Starting tonight, every night, I want all the dragons put in the Academy under lock and key." Stoick declared.

The teens were shocked and upset by this. 'A dragon lockdown?' Mildew was shocked as well, but not for the same reason. "What? That's it? Look what they did!" He exclaimed, gesturing to the Great Hall.

"This just doesn't make any sense! A dragon wouldn't just come in here and destroy the place! I mean, none of the food was even touched!" Hiccup pointed out.

That wasn't enough for the chief "I don't know why dragons do what they do, but I'm not going to let them do any more damage." He said firmly.

The next day, all the teens took their dragons to the Academy to keep them in lockdown. No one was happy about this new arrangement, especially the Haddock twins.

Stoick couldn't help but feel guilty and upset at watching his childrens' downcast expressions. He sighed. Gobber noticed this and tried to reassure his best friend. "You had to cage the dragons, Stoick. You had no choice."

"I know. But to Hiccup and Hicca, when I punish the dragons, I'm punishing them." He stated, knowing well the close bond between his children and their dragons.

"Yeah, that boy and that girl think that the dragons can do no wrong." Gobber commented.

Stoick sighed again "I just hope they understand that while a father does what's best for his children, a chief must do what's best for the village."

Meanwhile in the Academy, Fishlegs started to sing his dragon to sleep while giving her a blanket "Sleep, little Meatlug in your bed, where yummy little boulders dance in your head." Meatlug, however, refused to sleep, not wanting to sleep where her rider wasn't. "That usually works! Our whole bedtime routine is upset! She won't even lick my feet, thanks to-"

Snotlout, knowing what Fishlegs was going to say, cut him off "Watch it, Fishlegs! At least my dragon doesn't need a lullaby and a blanky."

"Actually, it's your fault that all our dragons have to sleep in jail." Ruffnut pointed out.

"And my tapestry is ruined." Raeda added bitterly. Hicca and Astrid managed to convince her not to attack Snotlout, but she still didn't forgive him.

"Yeah. You don't see _our_ dragon going on a rampage and wrecking stuff. Well, not any good stuff." Tuffnut said.

"I don't think a Dragon wrecked the Great Hall or stole the boots." Hiccup said.

"Me neither." Hicca said, agreeing with her brother.

"None of us wants to believe it either, guys, but you two saw the proof." Astrid pointed out.

"What proof? You saw the footprints, too. They were supposed to be made by a Zippleback, but they were no deeper than mine." Hiccup said. He then walked to a footprint made by Barf and Belch "Look at these! I could lie down in them!"

"Well, there could be a lot of explanations why a dragon made shallow footprints." Fishlegs said.

"Like, hello, he was trying to be sneaky?" Ruffnut added.

"I agree with Hiccup, I've never seen a Zippleback make tracks that shallow. And another thing; why would the Zippleback be walking around when it could easily fly?" Hicca pointed out.

"Alright. Well, how do you explain the Great Hall?" Astrid asked the auburn twins. Before either one of them could answer, Hookfang decided to flame up in annoyance of the new lockdown.

Hiccup turned to his cousin "Snotlout, do something about him, please? We're trying to think over here."

"Yeah, I gave up thinking. Never been happier." Tuffnut said contentedly.

"Snotlout!" Hiccup said annoyed.

"We don't need a burnt Academy right now! Keep him in line!" Raeda said, equally annoyed.

"I'm not the boss of him. He always does that when he gets angry!" Snotlout said defensively.

Hookfang walks away, leaving a scorched floor. That got Hiccas' attention as she nudged her brother and pointed at the floor. It took a few seconds for Hiccup to understand what his sister is thinking of. "Or goes on a rampage. That's how we can explain the Great Hall! Come on, sis! We've got to tell dad about this!"

The two of them immediately left to find their dad. Once they found him in the Great Hall, they wasted no time in telling him their new discovery.

"Just hear us out, Dad. When a Monstrous Nightmare gets mad, his whole body bursts into flames. Look at these walls! Not one single scorch mark." Hiccup explained.

"And the Zippleback tracks made! The ones we saw were shallower than a normal Zippleback track. Plus, don't you think it's strange that a _dragon_ would walk around Berk instead of flying?" Hicca added.

Stoick listened to his childrens' explanations and sighed. As much as he wanted to take their statements, he knew he couldn't "Hiccup, Hicca, until I have solid proof that it was something else, the dragons stay where they are."

Unbeknownst to the three of them, Toothless and Midnight caught an unfamiliar scent and decided to investigate it. They traced the scent to the armoury while a nearby Viking watches them. When the two dragons came inside, they saw a barrel of explosives which were about to be set off. As quickly as they could, the two Night Furies scrambled out of the armoury just as it exploded!

"Fire, fire!" The villagers screamed.

Stoick, Hiccup and Hicca heard the commotion and ran outside "The armoury! Grab some buckets!" Stoick ordered. He was about to joined them, but stopped at what he saw. "Toothless? Midnight?"

The same Viking who was watching the two dragons enter the armoury spoke up "It was them! They set the armoury on fire!"

"How dare they?" One of the Viking women said in outrage.

"Midnight?" Hicca said in disbelief.

"Toothless?" Hiccup said in equal disbelief.

"Every one of our weapons...gone!" Stoick exclaimed looking at the destroyed armoury.

"Prudence! My poor darling, I'm so sorry." Gobber said sadly to a ruined sword as he picked it up. "You should've had a long, blood-letting life."

"She didn't have to die, Gobber. Hiccup and Hiccas' Dragons left us utterly defenceless." Mildew said, walking up.

"Dad, you know Toothless and Midnight wouldn't do this." Hiccup said.

"They're innocent! They must have been framed or something!" Hicca pleaded, hoping the chief would listen.

"Sure, listen to your boy and girl, Stoick. That's what got us into this mess!" Mildew sneered. "See what happens when you leave your dragon all alone to wait outside?"

That statement got Hiccups' attention "What did you say?"

Ignoring the others, Gobber sadly picked up another burnt sword "Cindy! Oh, I guess your throat-slicing days are over."

Stoick was now faced with a dilemma. After what just happened he knew that as chief he couldn't have the dragons stay on Berk anymore but he also knew that if he made the decision then Hiccup, Hicca and the other teens will be completely devastated by this. After a deliberation with himself, he sighed. He knew what needed to be done "These dragons have done too much damage. It's not longer safe to have them on Berk. I want them gone."

This decision was given mixed reviews. While some of the villagers were in agreement with the chiefs' decision, especially after what just happened to the armoury, the others were shocked and upset, mainly the eight teens.

"What?!" Hiccup exclaimed.

"No!" Hicca cried.

"Finally!" Mildew shouted overjoyed. At last he got his wish!

Stoick continued speaking "Round them up, and take them all to Dragon Island. By the end of the day tomorrow, there will be no more dragons on Berk!"

"Oh, what a glorious day that will be. Party at my house!" Mildew exclaimed in joy. He then walked towards the Haddock twins. "Don't forget, you two. Right after you drop off your dragon, both of you will be fixing my roof." He left and the twins could do nothing but simply glare daggers at his retreating form.

"This is wrong..." Hiccup said.

"I know, it's horrible. It's the worst day of my life..." Astrid said sadly.

"No, Astrid. Something here doesn't add up." Hiccup explained.

"All I know is I'm losing my dragon." Fishlegs said.

"For now, yeah. Okay, but Hicca and I just need time to fix this." Hiccup started to say, before he was cut off by Snotlout.

"What are you talking about? It's over." Snotlout said bitterly before walking away. Fishlegs and Astrid joined him, both looking downcast.

"Forget it, it's over." Ruffnut said.

"Yeah, forget it." Tuffnut repeated. With that he and his sister walked away. This left Hicca, Hiccup and Raeda.

"I hate to say this, guys; but they're right. It is over. We did everything we could do to help, but it just wasn't enough." Raeda said sadly to her best human friends.

"I refuse to believe that the dragons are behind all this. It just doesn't add up. And I know for a fact that Midnight and Toothless would never try to set the armoury on fire. Neither by accident nor on purpose, right bro?" She turned to her brother and the two girls saw that Hiccup wasn't listening to the conversation. "Hiccup?" Hicca asked, nudging her brother.

That got her brothers' attention as he looked up. "Sorry. I was just trying to figure this whole thing out."

"Well I hope one of you manages to figure it out in the morning." Raeda said before leaving.

Unfortunately for her, neither of the twins could figure it out and soon, all the teens found themselves on Dragon Island saying goodbye to their dragons.

"I'm gonna miss you..." Astrid said as she hugged her dragon. The blue Nadder let out a sad squawk.

"It's not going to be the same without you." Raeda said to Sparkfire as she gave her dragon one last affectionate scratch.

Ruffnut and Tuffnut each hugged one head of the Zippleback sadly, before switching with the other twin to hug the other head.

Fishlegs gathered up some rocks for Meatlug. "Okay, Meatlug. There's plenty of rocks if you get hungry... and don't eat any limestone. You know it doesn't agree with you." He said, trying to hold back his tears.

Snotlout did his best to mask his sadness and simply patted his dragon on the snout "Be strong, buddy. I know you're gonna miss me-" He didn't get to finish what he was saying because Hookfang suddenly got distracted by a bird and flew away to chase it. "Okay. He's crying...he's crying on the inside!"

Hiccup removed Toothless' saddle without saying anything. The boy had offered to spend the night making an automatic tailfin like the one made in Snoggletog, but Toothless refused. He did not want to fly if his rider wasn't with him. It just wasn't the same.

"We'll be back for you guys. We promise." Hiccup said to his dragon.

"We're not going to give up. We will get you guys back on Berk." Hicca said, as determined as her brother. They started to leave but then noticed the two dragons trying to follow them. This put the Haddock twins on the verge of tears.

"No, bud! You and Midnight have to stay here, and take care of the other dragons. It's gonna be okay, Toothless. Trust me..."

"You guys should go and look for your hatchlings. I'm sure they would be happy to see their parents again." Hicca said as a tear rolled down her face.

The twins joined the other teens back on the boat and all eight of them shared one last look at their dragons before they disappeared from the view.

Hiccup finally broke the silence "There's something Mildew said that I can't stop thinking about...h-he said, 'See what happens when you leave your dragon to wait outside?' He knew Toothless and Midnight wasn't with us just before the armoury fire." He said to Astrid, Raeda and Hicca.

"So...?" Astrid asked, not seeing where this was going.

"So...so, he lives on the other side of the island. What was he doing in town? And how would he know where we were before the fire?"

Hicca thought about what her brother has just said. "Now that you mention it, it does seem strange that for a guy who lives far away from Berk, he always manages to show up right when those crimes took place."

"You two really think he set that fire?" Astrid asked.

"We think he did all of it. And we think he did it so our dad would get rid of all the dragons." Hiccup said

"Think about it, Mildew has been wanting the dragons gone since day one." His sister added.

Raeda suddenly became angry. "I can't believe that guy would stoop so low! It is one thing to get mess with my artwork and it is another thing to get Sparkfire and the other dragons banished from Berk! And he did both! When we get back to Berk, I am going to pay him a visit and-"

"Hang on, Rae. We don't know for sure if it was Mildew or not." Astrid said, interrupting the raven haired girl. She then turned to the Haddock twins "That's a pretty serious accusation. How are you two gonna prove it?"

Hicca and Hiccup exchanged a glance and both knew immediately how they were going to prove it.

Later that day, Hiccup and Hicca were busy fixing Mildews' roof. Both were tempted to refuse, especially with the strong possibility that Mildew was the one responsible for the dragons getting banished, but they couldn't for two reasons. One; Mildew would go complaining to their father and two; they needed an excuse to be at his house.

From the roof, Hicca surveyed the grounds and saw Mildew walking away from his house with his sheep, Fungus, in tow. Time to execute their plan.

"All clear." She whispered to her brother.

Hiccup simply nodded and thrown a rope that was tied to the roof inside Mildews' house. The plan was simple; Hicca would stay on the roof and keep an eye out for Mildew while Hiccup would search around Mildews' house for evidence.

As soon as his feet touched the floor, Hiccup looked around the room. He came across four shield portraits, three of them showing portraits of three different women and one showing Fungus. "Wife...wife...wife..." He stopped at the portrait of Fungus. "Hmm...well, Mildew definitely has a type." Hiccup shuddered, feeling disturbed by that. He continued to search the room until something, actually three things, caught his eyes. He walked across the room to pick them up. "What the...?" His eyes widened when he saw what they were; a pair of fake Zippleback feet and a fake Monstrous Nightmare claw!

Suddenly, his sisters' voice broke him out of his thoughts. "Mildew's coming, Hiccup! Quick! Climb back up!" Hiccup immediately dropped the evidence and scrambled to climb up the rope as the doorknob started to rattle. Hiccup nearly got to the roof, when Mildew came inside.

"I'm home, ladies!" Mildew said cheerfully to the portraits, unaware of the boy who was hanging on the rope. "What's that you say...? Nothing? Perfect." He walked across the room and picked up the Zippleback feet and the Monstrous Nightmares' claw. "Ah, these served us well, didn't they, Fungus? Shame we have to get rid of them."

Watching Mildew walk away with the evidence, Hiccups' eyes grew wide in panic. If Mildew gets rid of them, they will never prove that he was responsible. Then again, if Hiccup had picked up the evidence, Mildew would have found out and there was no telling what he would do to stop them from exposing the truth.

Mildew left the room with Fungus walking behind him. Hiccup was using all his strength not to fall when a drop of sweat fell down his face and on to Mildews' sheep! Fungus looked up and saw Hiccup hanging there. He then let out a 'baa' to try and alert his master, but luckily for Hiccup; Mildew ignored the sheep and walked outside.

Hiccup continued to climb up and with the help from his sister, got back onto the roof in time to see Mildew walking towards the cliff. Hicca looked to see her brothers' line of sight and saw Mildew carrying three things. She started to worry, knowing what was going to happen. "Are those..."

Knowing what his sister is going to ask him, Hiccup nodded his head in response and the twins could do nothing but stay on the roof and watch helplessly as Mildew threw away the only evidences into the vast ocean.

**A/N: I actually don't know how long it really takes to finish a tapestry, I was making a guess. Does anyone know? Let me know and I can make the correction if needed.**


	7. Alvin And The Outcasts

**Disclaimer: I do not own How to train your dragon or its' franchise.**

**Chapter 7: Alvin And The Outcasts**

_**There's an old Viking saying: "When your friends are roasting on the spit, you're the one who feels the fire." **_

On Dragon Island, the banished dragons are now trying to adjust to their former lives without their riders. This has been proven difficult for some of the dragons. Hookfang and Barf and Belch were roaring at each other about to attack, when they were interrupted by Toothless, who commanded both dragons to stop. Reluctantly, the Monstrous Nightmare and the Hideous Zippleback walked away. Toothless then went to the rock which contain his saddle and his mates' saddle and looked at them sadly. A familiar roar caused the male Night Fury to look up and see his mate flying towards him.

_'__Any sign of them?' _Toothless asked his mate.

_'__No. Not even one. Their scents seemed to be a few months old. _Midnight warbled sadly. They were talking about their hatchlings Darkrie, Nightshade, Starlight, Blaze and Shadow. After the adult Night Furies watched their riders leave Dragon Island the first thing they did was look for their hatchlings, hoping to be cheered up in light of the new banishment. Unfortunately for the two Night Furies, the five child dragons were nowhere to be seen and that made the parents even more depressed.

Midnight gave another sad warble and laid her head to the ground near her riders' saddle. _'First we lose our humans then we lose our children. I don't know how much more I can take.'_

Toothless hated to see his mate like this and nuzzled her neck in an attempt to comfort her. _'Hey, come on now. We didn't lose anyone. You heard Hiccup and Hicca. They promised they will be back for us and they're both too stubborn to quit. We will be reunited soon. And as for our children, they were talking about how much they wanted to fly all over the world. They probably went to do just that. I'm sure wherever they are they are alright and together.'_

Midnight raised her head and gave her mate and gummy smile. _'I hope you're right.'_

The two Night Furies then went looked out to the ocean, wondering what their riders were doing at the moment.

_**Mildew has made the entire village believe that dragons are too wild, that we all can't live together in peace. He's wrong, and Hicca and I are going to prove it.**_

In Berk, Hiccup and Hicca were at a beach looking towards the ocean with longing. The sound off their cousin complaining broke them out of their thoughts.

"Arrrrrrgggh! We've been here for hours and we haven't found anything!" Snotlout complained. As soon as they discovered that Mildew was behind the banishment, the Haddock twins quickly gathered all the teens and brought them to the beach, in hopes of retrieving the evidences that have been thrown in the ocean.

Hicca rolled her eyes while Hiccup corrected their cousin. "We've been here for ten minutes! And you've done nothing than build _that_!" He gestured to a pile of stones and sticks that have stacked up by Snotlout.

"What in the world is that?" Hicca asked.

"_That_ is Snotlout Manor." Snotlout said, gesturing to his work. He then turned to Astrid "And all I need now is a queen."

"Ugh." Astrid rolled her eyes.

"Aaaarrrrrrrgggh!" Suddenly Tuffnut jumped on top of Snotlout Manor and started destroying it while his sister cheered him on.

"What-What are you doing?!" Snotlout asked the male Thorston.

"Storming the castle." Tuffnut simply answered.

Hiccup tried to get the others back on the task at hand "Come on, guys! I'm telling you, Mildew framed our dragons! Hicca and I saw dragon feet in Mildew's house and we watched him throw them into the ocean."

Raeda then walked up to him and Hicca. "You know, the more time we're spending here the more I'm starting to favour Hiccas' plan."

Hicca beamed while Hiccup gave the Henderson girl a disapproving look. "We are not murdering Mildew!"

"Come on bro, I know how to make a poison that's untraceable. We can slip it in Mildews food and people will think he died of old age and we can also forge a note from him giving his confession on framing the dragons and the dragons will come back to Berk! No one will suspect us!" Hicca argued.

"Sis, we are not murderers. We will get the dragons back without having to kill anyone. We just need to find the evidence and prove that they were Mildews'."

Fishlegs voiced in his thoughts "I don't mean to be Norbert the Negative, but the ocean is really, really vast. And our chances at finding those dragon feet are as good as Snotlout and Astrid-"

"Don't go there." Astrid threatened, daring the boy to finish his sentence.

"Going nowhere." Fishlegs said meekly, shrinking away from the tough shield maiden.

Astrid then walked up to Hiccup "Look, Fishlegs is right. Even if Mildew did throw them in the ocean, they're not just gonna wash up on shore here."

"I found it!" Snotlout suddenly shouted.

"Really?" Hicca asked surprised.

"GREAT!" Hiccup exclaimed "Ehm... You were saying?" He asked Astrid before running towards Snotlout and the evidence. Or what he thought was the evidence.

"I haven't seen since I was a baby." Snotlout said happily as he held up a small bludgeon. "You never forget your first bludgeon."

"Should have known." Raeda said, rolling her eyes.

Hicca turned to her brother who sighed. "Now about that poison-"

"No!" He said, cutting her off. He then turned to the others "Just keep looking."

Meanwhile at the forge, Gobber and Stoick were in the forge with the former crafting weapons to replace the ones destroyed in the armoury. He had just finished hammering a sword. "One down, 345 to go."

Stoick sighed "Can't you do that any faster? Until you restock our weapons, we're completely defenceless."'

"Maybe you should have thought about that before sending the dragons away." Gobber said.

"You know I had no choice. They destroyed the armoury." The chief pointed out.

"This would be a bad time to get attacked."

"I know, Gobber."

"Not that there's ever a good time, but this would be particularly bad."

"I know, Gobber."

"Especially by Alvin. The Treacherous. Our oldest and most-feared enemy. Who'd kill us all to take Berk for his own."

"I got it, Gobber!" Stoick said firmly. He then scowled as he remembered his old enemy "Alvin the Treacherous..."

Far away from Berk was an island, known as Outcast Island. This a place for all the people who have been banished from their islands as punishment for their crimes. Currently it was being raided by a group of rogue dragons.

"Alvin, they're coming back!" One of the soldiers shouted.

A man, the same size of Stoick, looked up at the dragons murderously. He then went to a nearby catapult that was upturned.

"Out of me way! You can't find good marauders anywhere these days. " Alvin shouted, shoving a nearby outcast away. He used his whole strength to get the catapult standing again and then used it to fire at a Deadly Nadder.

"Alvin, there are too many of them! We need to get inside!" Savage, Alvins' right hand man, said, approaching the chief of the Outcasts.

Alvin gave one last glare to the dragons and then reluctantly went to the Great Hall of the island. He got inside just as a Monstrous Nightmare blasted the door.

"Oh, I've had it with these dragons! Is the ship ready?" Alvin asked moving to the centre of the Great Hall.

"We still have a little more work to do." Savage answered.

"That's not my problem, is it?" Alvin asked glaring at Savage who shrunk back a bit. He then turned to a map on the stone table "We sail for Berk immediately. We'll land here and under the cover of night."

"Why aren't we taking the whole army?" Savage asked.

"We're not there to fight Stoick. We're there for two men: The Dragon Conquerors." Alvin answered.

"Oh, and you'll have them. We hear they're both ten feet tall each with the strength of a dozen men."

"Well, they shouldn't be too hard to find then, should they?"

Little did they know who the 'Dragon Conquerors' actually were.

"We're telling you! Hicca and I saw a pair of Zippleback feet in Mildew's house. He must have used them to make the footprints of the dragon who supposedly stole the boots." Hiccup said. He and the rest of the gang had no luck finding the evidence they needed so Hiccup and Hicca decided to go to their dad and hope that what they saw would be good enough.

"And he also used the Monstrous Nightmare claw to make it look like a dragon destroyed the Great Hall." Hicca added.

"Well, then let's go have a look at them." Stoick said getting up.

"Yeah. Uh, there's gonna be a problem with that. We also saw him throw them into the ocean..." Hiccup said rubbing his arm.

"And we weren't able to retrieve it so far." Hicca said.

Stoick sighed "I know you both are upset about the dragons, kids, but you're gonna need evidence to accuse a man of high treason."

It was clear that their fathers' decision was final so both the twins went outside near the edge of Berk where they were joined by Astrid.

Hiccup turned to the two girls "Hicca, Astrid, we'll prove Mildew did it. We have to if we ever want to see our dragons again."

"It's easier said than done without the evidence." Hicca said, staring out into the ocean.

"I just hope they're okay." Astrid said, referring to their dragons.

"I hope so too." Hicca said, turning to the blonde girl.

Something from the ocean caught Astrids' eyes as she walked towards the cliff. "Why would one of our ships be anchoring there?" She asked, pointing to a ship near the sea-stack.

Hicca squint her eyes. "It doesn't look like one of our ships."

Hiccup took out his pocket telescope to get a better view. His eyes widened when he recognised the ship. "It's not one of our ships."

He gave the telescope to his sister and as soon as she saw the ship, her eyes widened as well. "Outcasts." She muttered.

"We've gotta tell Dad. Come on!" With that, three of them immediately went to look for the chief to warn him of the upcoming invasion of Berk.

At night, the Outcast ship has reached the shores of Berk and Alvin, Savage and the rest of the Outcasts stepped out of the ship.

"Ah, it's good to be back on the shores of Berk." Alvin commented with a smirk.

"Good for you. Not so good for them." Savage said, coming up to his chief.

"Let's find this Dragon Conqueror!"

In the Great Hall, the entire village was there to discuss the situation. It was made more difficult without weapons or dragons to defend themselves. Everyone started panicking.

"This is no time to panic! That's what the Outcasts are counting on!" Stoick said.

"Stoick!" Sven, one of the warriors said, running up to the chief.

"Sven, did you get a count?" The chief of Berk asked.

"I saw thirty men at least, all armed to the teeth." Sven reported.

"Without my weapons, we'll never be able to fight them head on." Gobber pointed out.

"No weapons! And Outcasts on our shores! All thanks to your children and their dragons!" Mildew said dramatically, gesturing to the Haddock twins who were glaring at him.

"I don't have time for this right now, Mildew." Stoick said firmly. He then turned to Mulch "Mulch! You and Bucket gather the elders and the children. Get them to Thor's beach. They'll be safe in the caves there."

Astrid did not like this idea "We can help fight! We've been trained as warriors."

Snotlout came up behind her "She may have been trained, but I was born a warrior."

Stoick held up a hatchet. "Take this. It was Alvin's." Snotlout held up his hands, expecting the chief to give him the weapon. He was disappointed, however, when he saw that Astrid got the weapon instead "But go with the others. You can help protect them."

Astrid nodded and she, Snotlout, Ruffnut and Tuffnut headed out with the other villagers.

Hiccup and Hicca then approached their dad "Let me and Hicca go get the dragons. At least if we have them, Dad, we can defend ourselves." Hiccup said.

"They're the only defence we have now." Hicca pleaded.

Knowing that there was no other choice, Stoick reluctantly agreed to this "Go."

Just as Hicca and Hiccup turned to leave, a voice stopped them. "I'm coming with you." Raeda, who didn't go with the others, said as she walked up to the twins. "You guys are going to need some kind of defence if you run into the outcast." She held up her bow and an arrow, ready to be used.

The twins agreed and the three of them were at the doors of the Great Hall when the chief spoke up. "The three of you be careful. You guys don't know what Alvin is capable of." Hiccup, Hicca and Raeda nodded and left the Great Hall. Stoick then turned to the remaining warriors "The rest of you: We'll head to the woods. Nobody knows that forest like we do."

"And when Alvin comes to looking for us there, he'll walk right into our trap!" Gobber said as the warriors head out to the forest.

At the edge of the cliff was Fishlegs. Having not attended the meeting, the Ingerman boy had no idea what was going on. "Oh, Meatlug, I miss you." He said with sorrow. He then decided to compose a poem, unaware of a figure approaching him from behind "The moon is full, my heart is empty. What rhymes with empty?"

The figure behind him then spoke up "Don't waste your time. Nothing rhymes with 'empty'." Slowly and fearfully, Fishlegs turned around and saw Alvin the Treacherous right behind him! The chief of the Outcasts then grabbed Fishlegs by his tunic and held him up "Who's the Dragon Conqueror?" He demanded.

Hyperventilating, Fishlegs did the only thing he could think of at the moment. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"

Irritated, Alvin simply threw Fishlegs off the cliff and into the ocean.

Meanwhile, Hicca, Raeda and Hiccup were near the docks planning on getting a boat to go to Dragon Island when they spotted two Outcasts coming towards the docks in a boat. Raeda got her bow and arrow ready. "Two Outcasts spotted; easy targets. We can use their boat to get to Dragon Island."

She was about to fire when Hiccup stopped her. He pointed to a group of Outcasts heading in their direction. The three of them immediately ran off to avoid being spotted by the Outcasts. They ran into the plaza when they saw more Outcasts heading in their direction. It seemed that the three of them were going to get captured by the Outcasts, until Hicca spotted a nearby cart. "There!" She whispered pointing at the cart. Understanding what she meant, Hiccup and Raeda followed her and they ducked under the cart, just in time as the Outcasts walked by the cart.

The three teens gave a sigh of relief but stiffened when they heard something, or rather someone, behind them. This gave the three of them a jolt, with Hicca bumping her head on the wheelbarrow, until they saw who it was.

"Fishlegs!" Hiccup whispered.

"You nearly gave me a heart attack!" Raeda hissed.

Fishlegs stopped shaking and spoke in a low voice "Alvin's looking for you two." He said, pointing to Hiccup and Hicca "He's looking for the Dragon Conquerors." Raeda, Hiccup and Hiccas' eyes widened at this new revelation.

Alvin and Savage, along with a few Outcasts, walked up to the Haddock household as Alvin inspected a destroyed sword. "Looks like Stoick isn't as armed as we'd anticipated."

"From the looks of the armory, he's not armed at all." Savage said.

They reached the door "Hmm... Should I knock? I mean, what's the etiquette in these situations?" Alvin asked his right hand man rhetorically. He then settled for a kick. "I think that seems about right. Stoick! Show your face!" Seeing that the house was empty, Alvin turned away. "The old coward's turned and run." He muttered.

One of his men then came up to him to report his findings. "I spotted fresh tracks leading into the forest. And I heard reports of a big guy with a bucket on his head heading down to the beach."

"Ehh, we'll split up. You four, go into the woods." Alvin ordered, pointing to four of his men.

"Where are we going?" Another Outcast asked.

"We'll go to the beach! How many hostages do you think the Dragon Conquerors are worth?"

"Seven! No! Eight!"

Unbeknownst to any of them, four figures were eavesdropping on them.

"Oh, no." Raeda said.

"This is bad." Hicca commented.

"What do we do now?" Fishlegs asked.

The wheels in Hiccups' mind turned as he came up with a plan "Fishlegs, Raeda, you two go to the woods and warn our father. Hicca and I need to get ahead of Alvin and warn Mulch and the others."

Hicca, Raeda and Fishlegs nodded in agreement and the four of them split up. "Be careful." Raeda said to the twins before she and Fishlegs ran towards the forest.

Hiccup turned to his sister. "Come on, sis. And stay close!" Hicca nodded and the two left to the beach.

In the forest Stoick, Gobber and the other warriors were devising a plan.

"When they come looking for us in the forest, they'll have to come through here." Gobber explained.

"Alright. What do we have?"

"Two frying pans, a rolling pin, and a kitchen knife." Gobber listed.

Stoick wasn't impressed by that "And what are we going to do when we find Alvin? Bake him a cake?!"

"Eh, pie would be nice, too. Who doesn't like pie?" Gobber said casually as he picked up a knife. He then threw the knife at a nearby tree and the tree ended up getting split in half! "That could be useful!"

Mulch was leading the other villagers to the beach "Hurry now! The cave is just up ahead." The farmer/fisherman then noticed someone missing. "Where's Bucket?"

He started getting worried and look around for his friend until a little girl walked up to him. "He went back to get my Lamby." She said.

Mulch sighed "Oh, for the love of..." He then went back to look for Bucket "Why am I always looking for Bucket? Hey, yeah, why can't he- Bucket? It's like trying to keep track of a half-wit pig." He finally found his friend carrying a stuffed lamb over his shoulder. "Ugh, Bucket! You had one job: Bring up the rear."

"But the little girl! You should've seen the look on her face, big blue eyes with the tears welling up." Bucket said.

Mulch couldn't help but sigh "Ugh, oh... your bucket's hard, but your heart is soft. Come on, come on." The two of them went back to join the others when they were suddenly held at spear-point! "Uh-oh..."

"You made it easy for us, Bucket. It's hard to miss a half-wit and his lamb." Alvin said smugly. He and his men then force Mulch and Bucket to take them to the others. None of them were aware that they were being watched by two auburn twins.

Meanwhile, in the forest, the four Outcasts were chasing a certain blonde blacksmith.

"There he is! Get him!"

"Oh, you lousy Outcasts! You'll never take me alive!" Gobber yelled as he kept running.

"Come on, get him!"

The blacksmith then reached a dead-end. He turned to face the Outcasts. "Ugh. Looks like you got me, boys." He said putting his hand and prosthetic up in surrender.

"Come on, get him!" The Outcast were getting ready to capture him when suddenly Stoick and the other warriors came out from hiding and attacked the Outcasts! Their element of surprise gave them the advantage as they manage to subdue all four Outcasts.

"Or maybe it's we who've got you." Gobber said in triumph of their successful plan. A noise from the distance put the adults back on alert.

"That way. Over there." Stoick commanded. They then split up. Stoick ran on the gorge and saw a figure running through the bushes. He ran through the gorge to catch up to the figure. He then jumped across and tackled the person to the ground. Just as he was about to deliver a punch, a feminine voice called out from behind.

"Chief, no! That's Fishlegs!"

The made Stoick pause and see that the person was in fact Fishlegs!

"Stoick! No!" Fishlegs pleaded, not wanting to take a punch from his chief.

The chief glared at the boy "For the love of Thor, Fishlegs, I could have killed you!"

"Thank you... for not killing me." Fishlegs said meekly.

Stoick then turned to the young Henderson girl who was walking towards them. "Raeda, what are you doing here? You're supposed to be with Hicca and Hiccup."

"I know chief and I was. But then we ran into Fishlegs." Raeda answered.

"Alvin the Treacherous grabbed me. He looked really treacherous." Fishlegs explained.

"I know they're here, Fishlegs." Stoick said.

"Yeah. They're here for Hiccup and Hicca." Fishlegs said.

"Hiccup? Hicca?" Stoick said as he started worrying for his children.

"Alvin knows where Mulch and the others are. He's planning on using them as hostages to capture Hicca and Hiccup." Raeda informed the chief.

That alone told the chief what he needed to do. He went, with the two teens in tow, to gather Gobber and the other adults. He intends to get to Alvin before that barbarian lays a finger on either one of his children.

At the beach, Alvin and his men have found and captured the other villagers. Surrounded by armed Outcasts the villagers, especially Astrid, Snotlout, Ruffnut and Tuffnut, could do nothing but glare at Alvin as he addressed the crowd. "For those of you who haven't figured it out...I am the one and only Alvin the Treacherous. And let me be clear, that name was earned."

"'Alvin'? Pft... How did he earn that?" Tuffnut joked as his sister snickered.

Alvin paid no attention to the blonde twins and continued "Your leader has abandoned ya. But Stoick doesn't concern me. I'm not here for him. I want the Dragon Conquerors."

Seeing his opportunity to get rid of the auburn haired, dragon-loving twins, Mildew whispered to Astrid "Say goodbye to Hiccup and Hicca." He then raised his hand to get Alvins' attention. "Alvin!"

Before he could say anything though, Astrid elbowed him in the face knocking him out cold. This caught Alvins' attention. "My grandfather's frail. He needs his nap." Astrid lied.

Alvin bought the deception and turned away from her, allowing Astrid to drop Mildew to the ground. "Well, like I said...tell me who the Dragon Conquerors are and you can all go free."

"The Conquerors?" Snotlout scoffed "Come on! I'll show Alvin who's a conqueror." With encouragement from the Thorston twins, the Jorgenson brought out his bludgeon and snuck up to Alvin, prepared to strike him. He froze, however, when the chief of the Outcasts saw him and glared at him, daring him to attack. "For you, sir." Snotlout said meekly, handing over his bludgeon. This caused Tuffnut to give him a disapproving look while Ruffnut face-palmed.

Alvin took the bludgeon "Well, you'd better check your trousers, son. I think you've soiled yourself." He said, shoving the boy aside. Seeing Alvins' back turned, Astrid took the opportunity and threw her hatchet at him. But as impressive as her throw was, it was futile as Alvin caught it with no problem. "Will you look at that? My old hatchet. I was wondering when I'd get that back." He then turned to the tough Hofferson girl who was pushed in front of him by one of his men. "Trying to kill Alvin the Treacherous? Ooh hoo! You're not as smart as you look." Alvin said as he walked around Astrid. "Tell me, who's your Dragon Conqueror, eh?" When he saw that Astrid wasn't going to answer him, he decided to pull her braid tail, causing the girl to yelp in pain. "Tell me!"

"Leave her alone!"

That got Alvins' attention as he let go of Astrids' braid tail and looked towards the source. He found both Hiccup and Hicca coming out of there hiding places to confront him with determined expressions, with Hiccups' mixed with a bit of rage.

"Hiccup! Hicca! What are you two doing?" Astrid asked, worried for the two.

"Looking for us, Alvin?" Hicca asked, glaring at the Outcasts chief.

"We're the Dragon Conquerors." Hiccup said firmly.

That statement caused Alvin, Savage and the other Outcasts to laugh. "You two? Stoicks' little embarrassments?" Alvin chuckled.

This did not deter either of the Haddock twins "We drove the dragons from Berk. Look around. You don't see any on this island, do you?" Hiccup asked, gesturing.

"We did that by ourselves." Hicca said.

While Alvin was looking at the skies for any sign of a dragon, Astrid gave a look to Hicca and Hiccup that was asking them what they were doing. The two of them gave her a look that said to play along and Astrid did just that. "I-It's true! All the dragons are afraid of them. They even conquered a Night Fury!

Alvin still seemed unconvinced "You're bluffing." He said approaching the Haddock twins.

"Are we? Well, there's only one way to find out. Take us to Dragon Island." Hiccup said, looking Alvin in the eyes.

"Once you see us conquering a dragon, you'll know we're not bluffing." Hicca said with the same determination as her brother.

Looking at the twins in front of him, Alvin decided to go along with their idea. He took Savage and a few of his men with him, leaving the rest to guard the captured Berkians.

With no weapons at all, the villagers had no choice but to sit around and hope that Hiccup and Hicca have a plan. All of a sudden one of the Outcasts was attacked from behind by none other than Stoick himself! This gave the other warriors the cue to attack and soon they were able to subdue the Outcasts.

Stoick pounced on one of the Outcasts and pinned him to the ground. "Where's Alvin?!" He demanded.

Instead of answering, the Outcast defiantly spit on Stoick. The chief of Berk then grabbed that guy by his tunic until Astrid interjected.

"Alvin took Hiccup and Hicca."

The Berkian chief froze with shocked with the words he was hoping he wouldn't hear. "What?!"

"They gave themselves up. They're on their way to Dragon Island." Astrid explained.

Stoick glared towards the ocean. This has just become personal.

On the Outcast ship, the Haddock twins were held behind two Outcasts with swords with Hiccup standing in front of his sister, not trusting any of these Outcast men.

"I'm sure you're fathers' told you two plenty about your island's most feared enemy." Alvin said coming up to the twins.

"Wh-who's that?" Hiccup said feigning ignorance "Oh, right, uh, you. No. Not so much."

Alvin was surprised at that "Really? Not a word?"

"Nope Not really." Hicca said casually, understanding what her brother was doing.

"Nothing?"

"Uh-uh." Hiccup said checking his fingers.

"Nothing about Alvin?"

"Nope." The twins said in unison.

That got Alvin irritated. Hiccup then spoke up. "Look, 'Al', all Hicca and I care about is that if we do what we say, you will leave the people of Berk in peace."

"No invasions, no kidnapping." Hicca added.

"On me word, kids!" Alvin said.

Unbeknownst to the chief of the Outcast was that a Berkian ship was trailing them "When we get there, we'll lay down cover fire with these catapults. Astrid, Raeda you get your dragons." Stoick ordered.

"No!" Snotlout said, putting his arm up "Save your cover fire for the others, sir. I can handle myself." While he said that, he leaned into the lever of the catapult causing it to launch a boulder placed by the Thorston twins into the sea.

Gobber rolled his eyes "I'll fire extra rounds to cover that one."

Ruffnut and Tuffnut then stepped up to the chief "Sir, we'd like to personally volunteer to kick Alvin's butt." Tuffnut offered, punching his right fist to his left palm while his sister gave a menacing look.

"I'll beat you guys to it." Raeda said, holding her bow up.

Stoick, however, shook his head "This isn't about Alvin. It's about Hiccup. We're here to bring him home." He said. 'Although I will definitely be reminding Alvin not to take either of my children again.'

On Dragon Island, Hicca and Hiccup walked across the land, both were held at sword-point.

"Hey, is the sword really necessary?" Hiccup asked after Alvin pushed him with the sword.

"We're not even armed here." Hicca pointed out.

Two black figures emerging from the rocks caught everyones' eyes. "Odin's Ghost!" Alvin muttered. "Are those...?"

"Night Furies! The unholy offspring of lightning and death itself!" Hiccup answered, trying to contain his smile.

"The most feared and dangerous dragon known to man." Hicca said, secretly wanting to go over to Midnight.

On instinct, the Outcasts raised their weapons at the two dragons.

"Ah, stop!" Hiccup said, holding out his arms. He then corrected himself. "...It will only make him angrier! Watch and learn."

"We'll handle this." Hicca said following her brothers' lead.

"By all means, proceed." Alvin said. He then turned to his men "I hope you're not squeamish. You're about to see two dragons eat a boy and a girl."

As soon as Hiccup and Hicca got close the two dragons pounced on the twins, causing some of the Outcasts to panic. What they didn't know was that Toothless and Midnight were actually giving their riders a few licks.

"Hey Midnight. Good to see you two." Hicca whispered to her dragon.

"I missed you, too...w-we'll catch up later. Right now you guys need to follow our lead." Hiccup whispered as he and his sister got up. They then nodded at each other as they continued the facade.

"Is that the best you've got? That's pathetic!" Hicca said out loud.

"You cannot defeat us! You dirty dragons!" Hiccup shouted. The two of them moved closer to where their saddles were. Then using Toothless and Midnights' wings for cover, they strapped their saddles on to their dragons. "We are the Dragon Conquerors!"

Alvin started to get a bit suspicious "Hey, what are you two doing with those dragons?!"

However, he was too late as Hicca and Hiccup got on their dragons and were now ready to face off against him.

"A word of advice Alvin; get your information right." Hicca said as she and Midnight turned around.

Hiccup and Toothless also turned around "Hicca is right, cause it's not really 'Dragon Conqueror', it's "Dragon Trainer"! Now!" With that the four of them flew up above Alvin and the other Outcasts.

Alvin could not believe what he was seeing "Great thunder of Thor! They _are _the Dragon Conquerors! Fire!" At that command, the Outcast readied their crossbows and fired at the dragons

"Incoming!" Hicca shouted as the four of them tried to dodge the arrows.

"Look out! Whoa! Whoa! Hey!" Hiccup shouted.

"What are you waiting for?! Shoot them down!"Alvin ordered his men. The Outcasts then used their catapults to launch boulders at the dragons and their riders. They seem to have some success as Toothless and Midnight were both struggling to avoid both the incoming boulders and arrows.

"There he is! Now we've got him!"

"Fire!"

Three arrows were about to hit Toothless and Midnight, when a fire blast intercepted its' path.

Hiccup looked at the source of the fire and smiled "Oh, what took you so long?"

"Why, did you two miss me?" Astrid asked as she and Stormfly flew towards the twins.

"Perfect timing!" Hicca said.

"What, you didn't expect us to miss out on all the fun did you?" Raeda asked as she and Sparkfire joined the group.

"Hiccup! Hicca!" Fishlegs shouted, alerting the twins of the oncoming boulders.

"We've gotta get in closer!" Hiccup said.

The Berkian then came near the Outcast ship. "Aim for their catapults! If we knock them out, the dragons can finish off the ship! Fire!" Stoick commanded as Gobber and the others fired at the enemy.

Alvin and his men quickly got back on the boat "Move offshore!"

"Here's our chance! Come on!" Hiccup said to the other dragon riders.

"Let's blast their ship!" Hicca said.

Alvin was getting frustrated by their lack of success "Oh, shoot that dragon down! Fire!" The Outcasts raised their crossbows and this time aimed for Astrid and Stormfly who were flying by! Astrid turned and saw the arrows flying towards them. On instinct, Stormfly did a barrel roll to avoid the arrows. But since Astrid wasn't ready, she fell off her dragon, hit the mast and landed in a crate on the Outcasts ship!

"Oh, no!" Hicca cried

"ASTRID!" Hiccup yelled as he guided Toothless to try to get Astrid from the ship.

"HICCUP!" Astrid yelled back as she got out of the crate. She ran to the side of the ship waved her arms around. But she was stopped as Alvin grabbed her by her arm!

"Welcome aboard, Astrid." Alvin sneered. He kept Astrid close and turned to the Outcasts. "Don't miss this time!"

Hiccup and Toothless tried to get Astrid out of there, but their plan was thwarted by the oncoming arrows. "Look out!" They then flew towards the other dragon riders and their dragons.

"Hold your fire! He's got Astrid!" Hiccup commanded.

"What do we do now?" Raeda asked, worried about Astrid.

Before Hiccup could answer that, Snotlout gave Hookfang the command to fire near the Outcast ship!

"What are you doing?!" Hiccup asked incredulously.

"I heard you say 'fire'!" Snotlout explained.

"I said '_Hold_ your fire'!" Hiccup said.

Snotlout didn't seem to get it "See?! You said it again!"

"Snotlout! That's two different things." Hicca said exasperated.

"No, he's right!" Stoick yelled from the Berkian ship.

"Thank you!" Snotlout said to his chief.

"Fire again, Hiccup and Hicca! All of you!"

The Haddock twins couldn't understand what their father was asking them until Hicca saw the water where Hookfang fired. "Hiccup, the smoke!"

Hiccup then understood "Everyone! Fire into the water!" He ordered.

The seven teens then flew across the Outcast ship and got their dragons to fire into the water, creating a fog around the ship. There was dead silent as no one on the Outcast ship had a clear view on anything anymore.

A sudden movement from the fog made Alvin agitated "Fire!"

"At what?" One of the Outcasts asked.

"Everything!"

The Outcasts did what they were told and fired their arrows. Predictably, none of them were able to hit any hidden target.

"Did you hear that? Oh, what's that?!" One of the Outcasts asked fearfully.

A large figure then came into view. Still holding Astrid, Alvin threw his sword at what he thought was a dragon. But as the figure came closer, it was revealed to be a masthead from the Berkian ship. The Berkian ship then rammed into the Outcast ship, causing everyone onboard to stumble backwards. Seeing her opportunity, Astrid grabbed a nearby rod and hit Alvin in the stomach and in the face and then made her escape.

"Astrid, hop on!" Hiccup said as he and Toothless flew by and took Astrid to rejoin the others in the sky.

Stoick then jumped onto the ship for the confrontation he has been waiting for "You're a coward taking my son." He said coldly, before punching his rival in the face.

"I take what I want! You know that, Stoick!" Alvin retorted getting up. The two then engaged in a combat.

"Not this time."

Stoick threw another punch, but this time Alvin caught it. Alvin then kneed Stoick in the chest causing the latter to fall. Alvin followed up with a punch, but Stoick managed to duck and retaliate with two punches, one to the stomach and another to the head. This caused Alvin to fall backwards. The chief of Berk was about to head back to his own ship when he noticed that the chief of the Outcasts grabbed onto an anchor with a rope tied on it. Alvin swung the anchor at Stoick, who barely managed to avoid it. At the second swing, Stoick ducked and the anchor hit the ships' masthead. Stoick got up and placed his foot on the rope tied on to the anchor. This allowed Alvin to pull the rope and trip up the Berkian chief. He then continued swinging the anchor at Stoick and Stoick kept dodging each swing until the last swing caused the anchor to get stuck at the same masthead it damaged earlier. Stoick took advantage of this and tied the rope around Alvins' hand. After delivering one final punch to the treacherous man, Stoick watched as the masthead broke and fell into the ocean, taking Alvin with it.

Stoick then pushed the Berkian ship away and jumped back on. "NOW, HICCUP AND HICCA! BURN THE SHIP!"

"That's our cue." Hicca said.

"Here we go guys! HIT 'EM WITH EVERYTHING YOU'VE GOT!" Hiccup hollered.

All the teens got their dragons to fire away at the ship, causing it to catch on fire. The Outcasts, who were still onboard, immediately jumped off the ship and into the ocean.

The Berkians won.

From their ship, Stoick watched as his children landed on deck with their dragons.

"Hicca, Hiccup, what were you two thinking?"

His children exchanged a glance before Hiccup answered "We were thinking... all we needed to do was to get to Toothless and Midnight. And together, we'd be able to make things right."

"And we did." Hicca added with a smile. The three humans and two dragons then turned to the burning ship as they watched it sank.

Happy with the reunion with their dragons and the victory over the Outcast, the dragon riders cheered as they headed home, none of them knowing that a certain Outcast chief, who swam back on to Dragon Island, was glaring at them.

It looked like he was enraged over their defeat, but to the surprise of the Outcast, their chief started laughing.

"They ride dragons!" Alvin said "We get that boy and that girl, and _we'll_ ride dragons!" Understanding now, the Outcasts started to laugh along with their chief. This was just the beginning...

Back on Berk, the dragons and their riders flew over the village with everyone cheering for them.

"You hear that, bud? You're back home." Hiccup said to Toothless.

"I believe order has been restored." Hicca said happily. But the two Night Furies, however, still looked a little downcast.

Their riders have noticed "Hey, what's wrong? Are you guys still worried about your kids?" Hiccup asked, he and his sister found out that Shadow, Nightshade, Starlight, Blaze and Darkrie were gone from Dragon Island. The two adult Night Furies nodded their heads. "I'm sure they're off having their own adventures. Who knows, they might come back soon, maybe even tomorrow!"

"I'm sure their fine. They are Night Furies after all, right guys?" Midnight and Toothless cheered up at that. One day they will reunite with their kids, just like they reunited with their humans.

One person, however, wasn't happy with the dragons return. "What are you cheering about? Don't you remember what these beasts have done?!" Mildew asked the cheering crowd.

Having none of that, Stoick approached Mildew. "I do. They saved our lives." The chief finished off with a glare, daring Mildew to try and protest. Mildew simply kept silent, offering no protest.

As the chief walked, his children and Raeda decided to have a word with Mildew as well

"And we may not be able to prove what you've done, but we will never forget it." Hiccup said.

"We will be watching you from now on Mildew." Hicca said, holding the same glare as her brother.

"Mess with my tapestry again and you will be my next target practice." Raeda threatened, holding up her bow. The three of them then walked away with their dragons behind them.

**_It's funny how an attack by your greatest enemy can change things overnight. Hicca and I set out to prove that our dragons would never hurt us... what they proved, is that they will always protect us._**

**A/N: What do you think of the murderous side I gave Hicca? Plus I know that in the series, Fishlegs was with the other captured villagers after Alvin took Hiccup, but I never got how he was suddenly captured so I just had him and Raeda stay with Stoick and the others. Please send in your reviews.**


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